The Karlovac City Council adopted the decision to continue the implementation of the ITU project based on the existing design, with 11 votes in favour and one against, at an extraordinary session on Thursday. Nine opposition councillors left the session before the debate.
The councillors from the Can! (Možemo!) and SDP – Workers' Party groups, along with three councillors from independent lists, left the session, while only independent councillor Dimitrije Birač remained from the opposition. The departure was explained in a joint statement.
"Today's extraordinary session of the City Council was not called to seek a solution, but to produce a political alibi for the continuation of the project, which would see the ancient linden trees on Trg bana Josipa Jelačića cut down. We will not participate in this performance," the councillors Dobroslav Adamec (Can!), Ehliman Planinac, and Vesna Horvat (Party of Retirees) said.
The dispute centres on the 42 ancient linden trees on the main square in Karlovac, which, according to the opposition, are to be removed according to the 2008 project. More than 4,000 citizens signed a petition to preserve the trees, and the opposition states that the Croatian Botanical Society, the Croatian Landscape Architecture Association, and the Croatian Phytopathological Society have supported it.
Adamec pointed out that the Can! (Možemo!) councillors had proposed changes to the project several times since 2023, but the municipal majority had rejected them each time. He also argued that the project was contrary to European environmental regulations.
Planinac stated that residents were being presented with a false choice between preserving the linden trees and losing EU funding. "The real question is: why has the project for the Trg bana Josip Jelačići not been adapted to the rules and standards that currently apply in the European Union?" she said, recalling that experts at a public meeting had stated that the project should be aligned with current regulations, not halted.
