Edin Forto, Minister of Transport and Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and president of Our party (Nasa stranka), told that the coalition partners at the state level would have to work faster, but that “maybe it’s a habit, something inherited from the previous period”. He assessed that if this pace of work continues, “we will not get closer to the European Union (EU) for a long time”. Forto also spoke about his statement that “the war ended 28 years ago”, which caused fierce reactions.
You were in Mostar two days ago for a meeting with coalition partners. What did you agree on?
I ask that these meetings be treated as working and that we establish a rhythm of seeing each other every fortnight. These are operational meetings and that format suits me because there are a lot of concrete things that need to be done. We can adopt much more, we can adopt 10 times more and I objected to that on Monday.
What was the reaction?
The reaction was not negative, but I did not get concrete answers. Maybe it’s a habit, something inherited from a previous period. This is slow, we will not get closer to the EU for a long time, even though we have made the biggest step forward.
Your statement about the “new Dodik” is being disputed?
It was misinterpreted. Dodik stated that the EU will not be a problem and I said we will see. I cannot announce how Dodik will behave.
You wrote on social networks that “the war ended 28 years ago” and that caused fierce reactions?
It’s like we live in two realities. We have the Dayton Agreement signed by the then president (of the Presidency of the Republic of BiH) Alija Izetbegovic together with others and it says that there is a Republika Srpska (RS). That started to bother me – am I a minister in the RS as well? People told me not to force ”RS”, to mention our side more. It’s the same thing with the end of the war. There are myths about the RS not existing or that the war is not over. Did you look at the comments, people won’t say the war is over. We in Our party have a clear attitude towards the truth. The reaction to that one sentence shows that this topic is difficult to discuss. It is true that no just peace was established, but Dayton was signed. It’s been 28 years, N1 reports.
E.Dz.
