The claims that the Croatian authorities managed to place and reopen the “Croatian issue” in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in the world’s decision-making centers, Washington, Brussels, and Berlin, are undoubtedly not far from true, but with a result thatZagreb did not hope for.
In past months, Croatia’s patronage of the Bosnian political factor has reached unimaginable proportions within which it is possible to threaten, blackmail, announce the disintegration of BiH, create an atmosphere of hopelessness, and at the same time pretend to be a victim and justify an alliance with Milorad Dodik.
Given the approach, the price was paid because by opening the “Croatian question”, Zagreb enabled the Bosnian political factor to bring BiH back into focus and present the interests, ambitions,and goals of both Croatian and Serbian politics in BiH from a completely different perspective. Zagreb is currently at risk of being completely compromised in the face of Western allies in NATO and some European Union (EU) countries. Moreover, if Zagreb continues with an identical policy, Sarajevo will increasingly be able to invoke Dodik’s pro-Russian policy against HDZ and Covic, if it has not already succeeded.
Nowadays, there are more and more voices that say Serbia and Croatia are threatening BiH by acting together, using the levers that Dragan Covic and Milorad Dodik have in the BiH institutions. Dodik, who is openly protected by official Zagreb in the EU and devalues the threat he poses, has been clearly labeled a pro-Russian player by the British government.
Also, today at the heart of NATO, there is open talk that BiH is threatened by Moscow’s policy in the Western Balkans. But, that does not prevent Zagreb from continuing cooperation with Dodik.
In Germany, there is growing talk that the HDZ and Zagreb are working to destroy BiH, which was almost impossible only a few months ago. Even though such claims are too difficult in the context of Zagreb, because Croatia’s interest is to control the political processes in the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and BiH, not its destruction, only Croatian politics is to blame for such a perception.
The amendment of the Election Law was and is the screen behind such ambitions, and threats with the third entity or self-government are nothing but impotence and an attempt to fulfill the basic goal with unconvincing threats.
Until the moment when the President of Croatia, Zoran Milanovic, announced that he would block the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO, it may have seemed to some of the domestic and foreign factors that the Croatian side was really negotiating. Milanovic removed all dilemmas with a single sentence.
Some will say that the Prime Minister and the President of Croatia have different attitudes towards BiH, forgetting that Pantovcak and Banski dvori have an identical approach to Dodik, that Croatian MEPs from HDZ often send more difficult messages than the President of SNSD, and that the final the goal of Milanovic and Plenkovic is identical.
On the one hand, noise and threats, and on the other, quiet diplomacy led to the same result, the electoral reform failed, while the proclaimed goodwill of Zagreb towards Sarajevo was revealed in the eyes of a large part of Western officials, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
