Activists rallied in Vruja Cove, located near Makarska in southern Croatia, to protest against the illegal construction and nature devastation there.
“That area is part of the maritime domain where the building is forbidden. Vruja Cove is owned by the Republic of Croatia, which means that the investor is building on the land of another,” Urša Raukar-Gamulin (We Can!) told a press conference outside the Parliament building.
She warned that instead of wood and a pristine beach, now there is a large holiday resort, a pier, a road several hundred meters long, and a tunnel that leads nowhere, she added.
Her party colleague Sandra Benčić announced a joint meeting of the committees on spatial planning and environmental protection to see which laws and institutions should be reinforced to prevent illegal construction and what to do with illegally built structures.
She noted that Vruje Cove was not the only example of illegal construction on the coast, citing similar cases in Premantura in Istria County, Bol on Brač island, and Makarska.
Benčić criticized President Milanović for publicly praising the businessman Stipe Latković for his project in Vruje Cove, saying that the coastline and islands were a constitutionally protected category and that the President should not be sending out messages justifying the devastation of the environment.
“If this trend of devastation continues, several decades from now, our coast will look like the coast of Chile, California or Australia, and visually it will no longer be part of the Mediterranean cultural heritage,” said Toni Vidan, a member of We Can’s Green task force.
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