ZAGREB, March 3, 2018 – Several thousand people gathered in the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka on Saturday to protest against a project to build a floating LNG terminal at Omišalj on the island of Krk. Among the protesters were local and regional government leaders, members of political parties, environmentalists, athletes and war veterans.
One of the organisers of the protest rally, the mayor of Omišalj Mirela Ahmetović of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), said that the primary aim of the protest was to protect the Croatian laws because the floating LNG terminal project was contrary to the laws. “Government, will you finally start to respect our laws?” she said.
Rijeka mayor Vojko Obersnel (SDP) said that this region had bad experience with poorly planned projects such as the industrial complex at Bakar. “We are all advocating for development, investment, energy stability, but not in the way the government wants it,” he said.
The head of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Zlatko Komadina (SDP), compared the floating LNG terminal project to the situation in the Gorski Kotar region which had been struck by four natural disasters in recent years.
“What the government is trying to do on Krk island is a natural disaster,” Komadina said, recalling that the County Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution opposing the floating LNG terminal construction project because of environmentally unacceptable technology and insufficient energy benefits.
