The Austrian government yesterday confirmed its support for the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), distancing itself from its right-wing vice-chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, who stood for the independence of BH entity of Republika Srpska (RS).
Austria supports the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of BiH” and does not interfere with the “internal affairs” of other countries, said Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, a spokesman for the coalition government formed in December by the right and the far-right wing.
He said this after a severely critique of the recently published Strache’s statement from last September.
The opposition Liberal Party Neos has revealed that Strache told for the Radio-Television of RS (RTRS) that he is advocating for “RS to be given the right to separate” from BiH.
“I would like to know why the international community insists on multiethnic BiH,” it was said then by Strache.
Asked about it yesterday on the O1’s public radio, Strache said he was “committed to the state integrity of BiH, as well as the right of the people to decide for themselves.”
The words of the Austrian Vice-Chancellor, the leader of the far-right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), which entered the government with the Austrian People’s Party (OVP) of the conservative young Chancellor, Sebastian Kurtz, caused the severely reactions of the Austrian right wing as well.
“Our vice-president would welcome a new war in BiH,” the OVP official from Vienna, Muamer Becirovic, wrote on Twitter, and Andreas Scheider, the opposition parliamentary group leader of the Social Democrats, called Strache’s statement “a dangerous incitement of the political crackdown”.
The new polemic started a week after the opposition criticized FPO official, Johann Gudenus, because he ceremoniously met with the entity president, Milorad Dodik, in Banja Luka.
The environmental group Piz described the visit of the FPO parliamentary official as “scandalous”, and the Liberal Party Neos demanded an explanation of FPO leader and Austrian vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache.
(Source: ba.n1info.com/Photo: timesofisrael.com)
