The Karlovac City Council adopted a resolution at an extraordinary session on Thursday to continue the implementation of the ITU project for the renovation of Ban Josip Jelačić Square according to the existing plan, with 11 votes in favour and one against. Nine of the ten opposition councillors left the session before the debate.
Councillors from the Možemo! Club, the SDP – Pensioners’ Party Club, and three councillors from independent lists left the session, with only independent councillor Dimitrije Birač remaining from the opposition. They explained their departure in a joint statement.
"Today's extraordinary session of the City Council was not convened to seek a solution, but to produce a political alibi for continuing a project that would result in the felling of century-old linden trees on Ban Josip Jelačić Square. We will not participate in this performance," the councillors Dobriša Adamec (Možemo!), Ehlimana Planinac and Luka Kučinić (SDP), and Vesna Horvat (Pensioners’ Party) stated.
The dispute centres on 42 century-old linden trees on the main square in Karlovac, which, according to the opposition, are to be removed under the 2008 project. A petition to preserve the trees has been signed by more than 4,000 citizens, and the opposition notes that it has been supported by the Croatian Botanical Society, the Croatian Landscape Architects Society, and the Croatian Phytopathological Society.
Adamec reminded that Možemo! councillors have proposed budget amendments to modify the project several times since 2023 to save the trees, but the city majority rejected them each time, he said. He also believes the project contradicts European environmental regulations.
Planinac asserted that citizens were presented with a false dilemma between preserving the linden trees and losing EU funds. "The real question is: why was the Ban Josip Jelačić Square renovation project not adjusted in good time to the rules and standards that currently apply in the European Union?" she said, recalling that experts on EU funds had stated at a public forum that the project should be aligned with current rules rather than halted.
Mayor Mandić expressed his stance on continuing the project in a Facebook post ahead of the session.
