In the announcement of the division of the Federation – and the third entity. Return to factory settings, is the response from Mostar to the potential confirmation of the Kovačević verdict.
HDZ BiH is counting the days until the decision in the Kovačević case, but it is not wasting time. Activated by all means on all fronts. They make plans and elaborate scenarios. From bad to worst. In fear and panic from the civil state, action in Mostar. Constitutional law experts unknown to the public work and create. So, under the baton of politics, they draw borders on the foundations of the defeated idea and the self-proclaimed Croatian community of Herceg-Bosnia. Because, if the European Court of Human Rights confirms the Kovačević verdict, and because of it Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes one electoral unit, the announcement is about splitting the Federation into two parts. Or as the Croatian media service writes, it returns to the situation before the Dayton Agreement:
“That is, two republics – the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina with headquarters in Sarajevo and the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna with headquarters in Mostar. The new Croatian Republic in BiH would have its own parliament, government and judiciary. It would recognize the internationally recognized borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina as members of the UN.”
That would be the third entity, without a doubt. The Croatian media service emphasizes that the borders would be virtual, but it is certain that the consequences would be real. And in one state two republics, the existing Serbian and the new Croatian, each with its own institutions and authorities.
Josip Merdžo, Secretary General of HNS, confirmed, as a guest on a TV show, that it is possible that, if the Main Council confirms the Kovačević verdict, “what failed for generations of Croatian politicians” – to create a Croatian federal unit in BiH.
Reading the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the imagined concept would be the definition of overthrowing the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Or on the other hand, the achievement of the goal and the greatest interest.
“A new political environment would be created that would then show what we are talking about as completely legitimate, which is a new federalization that would be much more logical, much fairer and, let me say, would be in the interest of the Croats,” Merdžo added.
And a little more in the interest of HDZ BiH, because only a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina with an ID card of this party is the only legitimate one. As the Kovačević judgment directly destroys this concept, and leads from an ethnic state to a civil system of representation, HDZ spoils a well-coordinated system of governance. That is why they are categorically refuting the verdict with arguments that were obviously not relevant to the European Court of Human Rights before.
“You also see the people who write it, who do it obviously out of interest, under someone’s influence, financially motivated for it. One day they are Croats, the next day they are representatives of other, third nations, and how could one comment on that. I’d better stop there, so I don’t fall into any traps,” said Dragan Čović, president of HDZ BiH.
“It is false representation, it should be prosecuted. The court in Strasbourg was under the influence of Mr. Kovačević’s friend, who is in that court before Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Marina Pendeš, president of the Croat club in the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZBiH).
Threats and blackmail. Ready to do anything for the Electoral Law according to their measure. HDZ BiH did not hide its intentions, reactions and potential answers even two years ago during one of the numerous attempts to reform the Election Law.
“I don’t believe that it is normal that in a country that has gone through what we went through in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that political leaders are still threatening us with war, because what we are hearing and what we partly heard at the meeting from HDZ representatives is that if Schmidt does not declare this part that there could be problems in the south of the country. To anyone who knows the Bosnian language at all, we all know what it means when someone says ‘there will be problems,'” said Predrag Kojović, representative of Our Party in the BiH House of Representatives, in July 2022.
There are now dangerous announcements in the south of the country. Divisions, borders, republics as desired. And where is the state? And who else is interested, because on the return of Herceg-Bosnia, there is silence at all levels. Čović’s partners, leaders of the Troika are silent, there are no political reactions. The international community is also silent. Just so that there is no belated reaction because Čović continues in Dodik’s footsteps of division, where there are the fewest states, Federalna writes.
