The session of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (PSBiH) was not held due to the lack of a quorum. Three delegates from the Serbian People’s Club, who come from the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), were not present at the session.
At the beginning of the session, the Speaker of the House, Kemal Ademović (NiP), informed the attendees that 12 delegates were attending the session – five each from the Bosniak and Croat peoples and two delegates from the Serb people.
PDP delegate Nenad Vuković stated after the session that these developments were expected.
“I would say that all fabricated excuses for the absence of both SNSD and HDZ delegates from the session should be rejected. There were enough delegates from the Croat people in the building for the last session, and there were enough delegates from the Serb people for today’s session. Therefore, this is about an attempt to obstruct the work of the House of Peoples and the PSBiH,” said Vuković.
Dženan Džonlagić (DF) stated that it is not true that Dragan Čović’s trip was the reason for the cancellation of the previous session, because Zdenko Ćosić was in the BiH PA building, but rather that it was about “taking over part of the burden from the SNSD”.
“Today, the SNSD broke the quorum even though the dismissals of Nikola Špirić and SNSD ministers were not on the agenda. In this way, they showed that their goal is to stop the work of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, by stopping the work of the House of Peoples,” said Džonlagić.
Džemal Smajić (SBiH) points out that it is a great pity that today’s session was canceled because there were many laws on the agenda that are very useful for BiH citizens, and that everyone has become convinced today that the goal of Dragan Ćović and Milorad Dodik is to completely stop the European path of BiH, as well as the lives of the citizens of this country, and to block everything.
Independent candidate Zlatko Miletić stated that his position that the work of the House of Peoples will not continue has been confirmed. He said that the ultimate goal is to destroy the institutions of the House of Peoples system, which was confirmed by today’s cancellation of the session, although there were no replacements on the agenda.
Želimir Nešković from the SDS apologized to the SNSD delegates because he had previously said that they would no longer dare to block the work of the House of Peoples of the BiH PA.
“I truly apologize to them because I was clearly wrong. I wonder now what Milorad Dodik agreed to in order to lift the sanctions against him, his family and associates and companies that are ‘tied’ to him and the SNSD. It is obvious that blocking the work of the House of Peoples is not part of the agreement,” said Nešković.
Ilija Cvitanović (HDZ 1990) called on the High Representative not to interfere in relations in BiH, but for legitimate representatives in the House of Peoples to understand their role, as people who were elected to work in the interests of the citizens of BiH, and not petty political interests, in order to remove blockages in the work of the House of Peoples.
“I am saying all this in order to unblock the work of the House of Peoples, to adopt two laws on the European path and to adopt the budget of the institutions of BiH, to ensure a minimum increase in salaries for civil servants and state employees and all employees at the level of BiH and to stop being hypocritical by offering financial assistance, and then nothing comes of it. That is why I said that I am intensively considering withdrawing the signature for the dismissal of SNSD personnel until the end of this procedure,” concluded Cvitanović.
