The High Representative (HR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina(BiH), Christian Schmidt, met yesterday with the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, after which he spoke about the Election Law and the position of Croats in BiH for the Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT).
Schmidt also discussed electoral reforms with Plenkovic at the meeting and stated that ensuring legitimate political representation in the electoral process is a task that must be done by domestic government representatives at the constitutional and legal levels.
“I think it is a task for those responsible in BiH. We on the international side will only help, but in fact, they need to make decisions. I would be happy if they reached an agreement,” Schmidt told.
When asked by journalist Zrinka Grancaric whether Croats in BiH have the same rights as the other two nations, Schmidt explained that he has been in our country for only a few weeks, but that he has already realized that there is a problem in the lack of rights of those who do not belong to the constituent peoples.
“I believe we need to look now at how the people breathe, how the electorate looks at it. I think we need to focus on the Dayton Agreement. Some things are fixed. There are three constituentpeoples. We have other peoples, mostly peoples who are not affiliated with those constituent peoples. I don’t think it’s easy to connect them all, but it’s important to work on it,” he said.
He also referred to Milorad Dodik, more precisely his non-recognition of Schmidt’s jurisdiction, to which he said that “it is very clear that he was appointed by the international community”.
“I am in the service, I am here, I live here. I call on everyone to deal with the facts, not with their understanding of the world,” he pointed out.
While speaking about the help of the international community, he noted that one of the successes is the establishment of peace, but added that there is still a need for a foreign factor in BiH and that Angela Merkel sent him to Sarajevo to better understand the situation and find a way to improve people’s lives.
“Chancellor Merkel considered it necessary to see the development there in a better way and to help bring it closer to Croatian and European standards. We want to prepare people for a better standard of living, for a better life, and a better chance of staying in the country. It is important to mention that 70 percent of young people in the survey say they would like to move anywhere else. That’s not good. We have to work on that. That’s why Chancellor Merkel asked me to come to BiH and take a closer look at how we can help and improve the lives of the people,” he concluded, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
