Croatia hazardous waste scandal prompts no-confidence call

Opposition parties in Croatia demanded a no-confidence vote against the government on Tuesday over thousands of tonnes of hazardous waste that remain unrecovered after years of illegal dumping.

Croatia's anti-corruption and organised crime office, USKOK, has been investigating 10 people and four companies since February 2025 after the discovery of around 35,000 tonnes of waste, including electronic and medical equipment and plastics.

The suspects are accused of importing waste from Slovenia, Italy and Germany, as well as medical waste from Croatia, before illegally burying or dumping it in the Lika region.

USKOK said last week that soil contamination had occurred and had spread beyond the dumping site.

President Zoran Milanovic called for an immediate clean-up late Monday, saying in a Facebook post that hazardous waste from European Union countries was poisoning Lika's soil. He said people's health was clearly at risk.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, of the conservative HDZ party, responded Tuesday by calling an emergency meeting of his governing coalition and urged people not to panic. He said more than 30,000 tonnes of waste were buried and another 5,000 tonnes remained above ground.

Plenkovic said drinking water was safe and that health authorities would publish test results daily. Zvonimir Troskot, a lawmaker with the centre-right Most party, said drinking water would be contaminated and called the situation an alarming environmental crisis.

Plenkovic said a public tender was under way to remove the surface waste, but that the buried material was harder to handle because some of it was likely hazardous. He said Croatia had no facility capable of handling such waste and would need to find appropriate companies to dispose of it.

Several opposition parties, including the social-democrat SDP, called for an emergency session of parliament and a no-confidence vote.

Parliament's environmental protection committee is due to meet on Friday in Gospic, near where most of the waste was found. Gospic mayor Darko Milinovic called on Croatia to unite around the issue after recent local protests over public health fears.