September the 22nd, 2026 – SDP is seeking the dismissal of PM Andrej Plenković following the hazardous waste scandal in Lika.
By the end of this week, SDP will officially submit to parliamentary procedure a proposal for a vote of no confidence in the Government of Andrej Plenković. Index reports that it will do so over the case of illegally dumped hazardous waste in Gospić and other parts of Croatia. 55 signatures of MPs were already collected for the initiative a month ago, but SDP will submit only 30, the minimum required. The proposal has been signed by all opposition parties except DOMiNO and the Croatian Sovereignists.
The reason for submitting only part of the signatures is a provision of the parliamentary Rules of Procedure according to which an MP can support only one such proposal within a period of six months. SDP is thus leaving open the possibility that some MPs, before the expiry of that deadline, support a new request for the dismissal of the Government or one of its members, reports Novi list.
an october vote
After Speaker of Parliament Gordan Jandroković receives the proposal and places it on the agenda, the Government has eight days to respond, and the vote must be held within 30 days. This means that MPs should declare themselves on confidence in the Government during October. The parliamentary majority currently has 79 MPs, so according to the present balance of forces there are not enough votes to pass a vote of no confidence. In the proposal SDP explains in eight points why it considers Plenković’s government politically responsible for the illegal accumulation of 37,000 tonnes of waste in Gospić, but also for cases of environmental pollution in other parts of Croatia.
sdp: the government shaped this system for years
SDP’s fundamental thesis is that long-term changes to regulations and the weakening of control mechanisms opened the space for illegal waste dumping. SDP claims that responsibility reaches the Prime Minister because his Government “for years shaped the regulations, organised supervision and chose the people at the head of key institutions.”
They also state that part of the powers for acting in such cases belonged to the Government and its president. They particularly single out suspicions linked to former Chief State Inspector Andrija Mikulić, who was appointed by Plenković’s government. “Were individual failures of supervision the result of deliberate favouritism, did those who were supposed to prevent the illegalities by their actions enable their continuation,” SDP asks in the proposal.
the pm is being accused of downplaying the issue
In the request SDP also deals with what it calls the Prime Minister’s downplaying of the seriousness of the problem of illegally buried waste in Gospić. “A stronger reaction by the Government followed only with the growth of public pressure and protests,” they claim.
In the final part of the request they state that political responsibility must lead to a change in the waste management system and that citizens have the right to effective remediation and the accountability of those who managed the system for years. An additional political dimension is given to the case by the statement of Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Ivan Anušić, who last weekend recalled that as early as 2023, after the fire at Drava International, he called out the State Inspectorate. Anušić said at the time that the Inspectorate had to control the quantities and type of waste and the method of its disposal. “Unfortunately, three years later we see where we are when it comes to those who ran the Inspectorate and when we talk about Gospić, but also about scandals linked to waste,” Anušić said.
Back in July 2024, the Croatian Government gave Mikulić a second term as Chief State Inspector. Anušić was already a member of the government at that time.
