Political actors in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina(FBiH) have come to terms with the fact that Christian Schmidt will be the one who, through his imposition, resolves the appointment of the new Government of the FBiH. The key question is whether the changes will be permanent or temporary.
After the last warning to domestic political actors, it is clear that Schmidt will impose new changes on the way of forming the government in the FBiH. The only thing that remains an open question is whether these changes will be temporary or permanent changes. This is precisely the key political issue for the future of the Federation, but also for political developments in the coming period.
HDZ leader Dragan Covic has emphasized on several occasions that all changes that would have a permanent character are unacceptable for HDZ, i.e. that the Office of the High Representative (OHR) can only impose temporary changes to the electoral law.
“We very clearly emphasized that we have clear instructions, we respect the Constitution and that’s it. It’s simple. If someone plays with it, those solutions can be short-term to unblock the process. If you want to change anything in the electoral law, I repeat once again, the Croatian member of the BiH presidency must be elected by the Croats, and the same applies for the houses of the peoples,” said Covic from Mostar last week.
Different views were expressed by the parties gathered in the Eight, whose leaders and members mostly said that they were asking Schmidt to impose permanent changes. The views of the Party for BiH and NES were perceived by the public as the harshest on this issue, from which it could be heard that they will not be part of the government if Schmidt imposes temporary solutions.
Namely, if they want to show their political credibility, the Party of Eight should send a clear message to the public and the high representative that they will not be part of the government that would eventually be formed on the basis of a decision imposed by Schmidt.
Of course, it would be a politically extremely risky move for them, and some arguments could be found against it, such as the fact that it would mean that the government of Fadil Novalicwould remain in another technical mandate or that the government would be formed by some other political options that do not take a principled position.
Nevertheless, with such a risky move, the ”Eight” parties would show that they will take a position that is beneficial for the interests of the country in the long term, regardless of the fact that it would call into question their current participation in government.
