“This is not what we agreed on, what we wanted to do in this period,” said the Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nermin Nikšić, for Dnevnik D, commenting on the current situation in the country. Things cannot change overnight, but you have to be realistic, he said – they have made some significant strides in the past few months.
When it comes to getting out of the crisis – for the continuation of work, cooperation, talks at the state level, the issue is the relationship to the laws that represent an attack on the constitutional order, which was clearly stated by the representatives of the international community, Nikšić pointed out.
Nikšić reminded that Milorad Dodik, with the decree on non-application of the law of High Representative Christian Schmidt, entered the field of a criminal offense – and we are waiting to see if the judicial institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina are functioning.
“The second scenario is that in the period before us, all the actors on the political scene realize that there is nothing to be gained from this kind of behavior, that the citizens have no benefit, least of all the citizens of the RS,” said Nikšić.
Nikšić also spoke about what happens behind the cameras – Dragan Čović, he says, is a much tougher negotiator on concrete matters. The narrative at those meetings is different: “We agree on some things very quickly. Even what we agreed on – it was realized. The BiH budget was adopted, which was increased by 200 million BAM, which made it possible for the institutions of BiH to function at full capacity, for soldiers, customs officers, and police officers to receive salaries. Until yesterday, no one wanted to apply to those institutions – now it’s the other way around”.
Some things have moved from the deadlock, Nikšić believes – but then he falls into a crisis: “But at these last meetings it was said – by the SNSD, and the position of the Coalition of Three and the HDZ was clear – that BiH should be part of the European Union “.
“We don’t want to pretend to be dead, we can’t accept to act as if nothing happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Nikšić.
The Council of Ministers of BiH has never been formed faster, Nikšić said, and he agreed with the statement that today it is “on devices”, but still working. As for the new Minister of Finance of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he reminded that this position belongs to SNSD: But, in order to continue to behave normally, we expect to solve some previous issues”.
He stated that everyone is talking – or trying to talk: “We had half the country declaring that the legal system of the country was invalid. This is not a normal state. We will slowly solve all these problems. The High Representative has already repealed those laws. It is much easier to lead a populist policy – to be rigid, not to give, to hold back, to argue… Who benefits from that?”.
Nikšić once again emphasized that when they started, they said that they were very determined and that they were offering a chance for compromise, discussion, and agreement – but there is no compromise, no discussion, no agreement at the expense of the state.
The director of Elektroprijenos BiH will be a Bosniak – due to the principle of rotation, Nikšić said, and when it comes to the appointment of the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives of FBiH, it is a position that belongs to the parliamentary majority, of which Arnel Isak is a part. Marin Vukoja will receive support to be a judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nikšić is sure. He also added that foreign judges are needed in that body at the moment – but that, in the event that there are only judges from Bosnia and Herzegovina, ethnic voting is a red line. BH gas can be the bearer of investment in the Southern Interconnection, Nikšić points out – there is no need for a new company, it can be headed by a HDZ man. As far as the Election Law is concerned, it is ideal, he says, that the members of the Presidency of BiH are elected from the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
Nikšić also said that the rebalancing of the FBiH budget is conditioned by technical matters – amendments were adopted which, due to technical errors in the codes, cannot be corrected as technical errors but by rebalancing, and the need for additional funds has been shown.
