The felling of the linden tree avenue on Ban Jelačić Square in Karlovac and the detention of two women who protested against it has drawn sharp condemnation from the opposition in the City Council.
Možemo!, SDP and the Pensioners' Party, with the support of independent lists, called the city administration's move on Tuesday "a symbol of repression and disregard for the will of citizens, experts and the public interest".
"More than 4,000 citizens who opposed the felling were ignored. This is no longer just a question of trees, but the relationship of power to its own citizens," said Možemo! councillor Dobriša Adamec at a press conference attended by around a hundred Karlovac residents. He added that the linden trees had survived war, earthquakes and storms, and were not felled because they were diseased.
Ehlimana Planinac from SDP described how the trees were felled from early morning, with security guards present, and two people who publicly fought against the felling were taken to the police station. She recalled that the mayor had previously claimed that the linden trees, planted in 1979 to mark Karlovac's 400th anniversary, would be relocated. "They left only one linden tree. They felled almost 40," she said, announcing that the opposition would seek to hold the mayor accountable.
Vesna Horvat from the Pensioners' Party warned that the City Council had accepted the Green Urban Renewal Strategy a year ago, while Luka Kučinić from SDP assessed that the city had lost not only trees but also part of its identity through the felling. Former mayoral candidate Davor Petračić joined the press conference.
Works on the square's reconstruction were temporarily halted after part of the public rebelled, but the City Council decided that the project would continue. The city administration had earlier stated that an area of more than 8,000 square metres was being landscaped and that 18 new linden trees would be planted.
Mayor Damir Mandić stated, however, that according to a landscape study, the existing trees had never been allowed to be planted in that location because they were suffocated by the asphalt. The square is being landscaped according to a project by architects Krešimir Rogina and Vinko Penezić, which won the urban planning and architecture competition in 2009.
