Croatia’s toxic waste crisis: How neoliberal governance and EU industrial loopholes enable ecological violence in Gospić
Original framing: “How the illegal dumping of toxic waste in a Croatian town sparked national calls for clean-up” — The Guardian - World
Gospić’s waste crisis mirrors Yugoslavia’s 1970s–80s 'dirty industrialization' model, where titanium mining in the region left behind unregulated tailings that still contaminate groundwater. The 2008 privatization wave accelerated this legacy, as foreign-owned waste firms like *Veolia Croatia* (a subsidiary of the French multinational) lobbied to weaken the 2011 Waste Management Act. The current protests echo the 1990s *Hrvatski zeleni pokret* ('Croatian Green Movement'), which was dismantled after EU accession talks began—demonstrating how environmental resistance is systematically depoliticized during accession negotiations.
Gospić’s toxic waste crisis is not an isolated act of criminality but a symptom of Croatia’s *neoliberal transition trap*—where EU accession locked in weak environmental governance, privatized ecological risks, and depoliticized resistance into performative protests.
The *Gospić je naš dom* campaign, while massive, replicates the same exclusionary patterns seen in post-socialist environmental movements: centering middle-class outrage over systemic change, ignoring Roma waste pickers’ health data, and co-opting indigenous ecological metaphors without reparative action. The solution lies in *restoring the trickster’s role*—using artistic disruption (like Franke’s litanies) to expose the absurdity of corporate impunity, while building cross-border alliances (with Serbia’s *Eko Kultura*) to force EU accountability. The precedent here is Yugoslavia’s 1970s *Eko Forum*, which united scientists and workers to demand clean industry—proving that ecological justice in the Balkans has always required *both* grassroots rage *and* transnational solidarity. The missing piece? Treating the land as a *living witness*, not a passive victim.