Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said yesterday that the decision of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Christian Schmidt, to unblock the formation of a government in the Federation of BiH (FBiH) could be dangerous for Croats in the long term.
Schmidt made a temporary decision three days ago with the aim of unblocking the establishment of the FBiH Government, which meant bypassing the consent of one of the three members of the FBiH leadership, which is necessary for the formation of the government. Ultimately, it resulted in the formation of a new government.
The Croatian president says that this decision helped Croats at the moment, but not in the long term.
“In the long term, if it becomes a precedent, it is dangerous. It doesn’t help if you say ‘but this is only applied once’,” Milanovic stated.
Milanovic was not completely precise, but he seems to think that Schmidt’s precedent is dangerous because there is no guarantee that Schmidt or another High Representative will not reach for the same decision in the event of the implementation of some future elections, at the expense of Croats, as he did now at the expense of Bosniaks.
Moreover, the fact that Schmidt brought a temporary decision to expel the SDA from power has now legitimized the circumvention of the will of any member of the FBiH leadership. However, he introduced an additional mechanism for the election of the Government of FBiH in the event of disagreement of one (vice) president.
Furthermore, Milanovic said that Schmidt’s decision may have helped the Croats at the moment, but not in the long term:
“One day he will leave BiH, but the problems will remain,” he concluded.
Namely, earlier Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic welcomed the decision of the High Representative and said that the parties in power should now focus on reforming the electoral system.
He explained that these changes are an urgent task for the authorities in FBiH, but that electing a member of the BiH Presidency from among the Croatian people must also be on the agenda, Klix.ba reports.
