Prime Minister Andrej Plenković pointed out on Monday, in an interview with Federation of BiH TV, that the fastest way to restore trust between Croats and Bosniaks in BiH would be to stop the practice of overvoting Croats in the election to the state presidency, to which, as he expects, Darijana Filipović from HDZ BiH will be elected after the next elections.
In an interview for Federal Television, Plenković assessed that the overvoting of Croats in the BiH Presidency was an anomaly that was not intended by the Dayton Agreement.
“The point of the Dayton Agreement was to stop the war and to restore trust. And trust can be created with a fairly simple consent to the new electoral architecture. And then, in my opinion, all these tensions would somehow be put aside. Trust would rise,” said the Croatian Prime Minister.
At the same time, he stated that he would personally be against a situation in which Croats would eventually impose political representatives on Bosniaks.
According to him, during meetings with Bosniak religious and political representatives, as well as Serbian officials, Croatia is trying to help establish trust between the three communities.
“I think we have done a lot to soften these relations, to bring them closer,” he said.
Bosniaks have elected Željko Komšić as the Croat member of the Presidency on four occasions, and the continuation of this practice is announced in this year’s elections with the candidacy of Slaven Kovačević as the Croat member of the Presidency of BiH.
Asked how he would comment on the existence of two candidates from Croat parties in BiH, Darijana Filipović from the HDZ BiH and Zdenko Lučić, who is the candidate of the opposition five, Prime Minister Plenković, who is also the leader of the HDZ, said that this leads to a waste of Croat votes. He nevertheless expressed his belief that the representative of the sister HDZ will win the elections in the fall of this year.
“My impression is that Ms. Filipović … has the best chance and I hope that she will receive support and that she will be one of the three members of the Presidency in the future,” said Plenković.
