A session of the Presidency of the Croatian National Assembly (HNS) of Bosnia and Herzegovina was held in Mostar on Friday, and most of the attention was devoted to the upcoming general elections. The president of the HNS of BiH, Dragan Čović, said that Darijana Filipović is an “excellent candidate” behind whom they fully support.
Čović is of the opinion that Croats as a nation should go with a common candidate.
“Our strategic interest was to have a multi-party system in our activities, but since the issue of the Election Law has not been resolved, then the same need arises again, to try to organize together through the HNS BiH and have one candidate. We succeeded to the greatest extent with the candidacy of my colleague Darijana Filipović and the support given by a part of the representatives of the HNS of BiH,” said Čović on Friday after the session of the Presidency of the HNS of BiH.
He emphasized that Darijana Filipović is an excellent candidate and that they are strongly behind that choice.
“Of course, there are parties that think a little differently and use this as a tool for their party profiling. I don’t see the point in constantly researching and searching, because I think we have an excellent candidate who can connect all that is needed to be a Croatian member of the BiH Presidency in a generational and every other way. I invite all colleagues and all other institutions of our people in BiH to start with that thinking – said the president of the HNS of BiH.
At the same time, he emphasized that he does not see the slightest problem that the Croatian people have ten candidates for the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but only if there are changes to the Election Law.
“We must not allow ourselves to enter a crisis area where the Bosniak people can elect two Bosniak members of the Presidency and then whine about how this is a problem for us. Everyone should take the agreement upon themselves. We have such experiences during the time of the Alliance and the Platform, we know what kind of policy was adopted then. Where are those policies today, what good did they do for the Croatian people, but also for Bosnia and Herzegovina?,”asked Covic.
He sent a message to the Bosniaks as well, inviting them to consider whether the imposition of a Croatian member of the Presidency has brought any good to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Constitutional categories should be respected, the Croatian people should have their legitimate representative,” Čović stated.
Political processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Southern Gas Interconnection
The president of the HNS of BiH also criticized the political processes in BiH.
“You saw that the session of the House of Peoples is scheduled for Monday, and we already know that it will not happen because someone is imposing agenda items according to the same model. We are talking about Europe, and of the items on the agenda that were proposed for Monday, as part of the emergency session, we only have the Law on the HJPC and the Law on the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 20th place. That speaks about the games in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These five months must not be “thrown away”. It is time for the government at the state level to start solving something. The BiH Budget issue needs to be resolved, because no other issue can be resolved without it,” Čović believes.
He also referred to the Southern Gas Interconnection (JPI), saying that after the adoption of the Amendments to the Law on Southern Gas Interconnection, work can now formally begin.
“I think that by the Three Seas summit in Dubrovnik, which is held at the end of April, some kind of document between BiH and the Republic of Croatia will be drawn up and presented to the public. With that, it would be possible to formally start work, and we can already do that today because the law has been adopted. There are many more legal steps in the field. All that we are doing cannot be done without Croatia, we need to do some 60 kilometers from Dugopolje to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. We will work in parallel, but there is no gas without this communication, because the gas comes from the West. As far as we are concerned, we want to start administrative action on the ground from tomorrow,” he asserted.
Finally, he pointed out that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not taking any risks in this project.
“The complete risk is on the investor. If the investor invests those billions, he will work on the infrastructure at the same time. This is a political and security project for us, because where the USA invests money, they will take care of that area. This can solve a large number of other problems in the future,” Cović concluded.
