https://n1info.ba/english/news/covic-advocates-for-three-federal-units-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina/

Dragan Covic, the leader of the Croat Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH), stated in an interview with Hrvatski tjednik that "federalism is exclusively the future of this country; if you have three federal units, you have solved absolutely everything." He also accused "political Sarajevo" of actions leading to the disintegration of Bosnia and Herzegovina and criticised Bosniak delegates in the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina for behaving "worse than the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD)."

Despite distancing himself from Milorad Dodik and SNSD as partners in Kupres, he reiterated in the interview the need for the signatories of the agreement from two and a half years ago to reconvene.

“Three federal units and release of emphasis on nationalism”

“Numerous changes are possible, and if we want to function long-term as a normally organised society, we may have to release the emphasis on nationalism. If you have three federal units, you have solved absolutely everything. All judgments of the Court in Strasbourg would be implemented, and the path to the European Union would be open. We would have a discontinuity of territory in that structure, and solutions would follow economic, commercial, traffic, and infrastructural logic. Based on that, there would be three federal units, recognisable with Bosniak, Serb, and Croat majority structures. Of course, that is the future. Why should there be two entities plus the Brcko District, and in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ten cantons?” Covic baselessly responded to a question about the Croat federal unit.

Accusations against Konakovic

The HDZ BiH blamed the current crisis on “political Sarajevo” and said that the international community has not shown particular activity or resourcefulness in this environment. “From the Bosniak side, someone is also trying to articulate something towards the external environment. This goes primarily through the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who leads exclusively his own policy or the policy of his party, which has no basis in something that would ultimately be a common foreign policy of the three constituent peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I fear that others, who act in the name of Bosniaks, are acting similarly and complementing each other to prevent Croats from fully exercising their constitutional rights and, at the same time, to eliminate SNSD as the main cause of this crisis,” Covic claimed.

Regarding the way out of the crisis, he reiterated that the partners who signed the agreement two and a half years ago (HDZ, Trojka, and SNSD) should sit down to see what has been implemented and, if it no longer works, seek a new path. “We even agreed to try to find that other path, but to clearly define the basis on which we will do it,” he added.

Admission of conditioning RS opposition with election law

He stated that the basis of the agreement is “the equality of the three peoples immediately, today,” and that “the first step must be to resolve the issue of the election of members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” alluding to the amendments to the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina as proposed by HDZ.

“Two or three days ago, we sat down with friends from Republika Srpska in Sarajevo. We emphasised that the basic condition is the Election Law, along with two other laws related to the opening of negotiations with the European Union. They agreed with everything. And we stopped there. There will probably be another joint meeting in Sarajevo. There was also an idea to meet in Banja Luka to make it more substantive. I see that some are upset about this, but basically, everything is very simple; if we cannot agree on everything, there is no point in entering new platforms, new coordinations, and new partnerships,” Covic noted.

He accused Bosniak delegates in the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina of behaving worse than Dodik's SNSD, given that they left the last two emergency sessions of the House of Peoples due to violations of the Rules of Procedure. Covic says that the reason for the blockade is precisely the Election Law as desired by HDZ.

“They behave worse than them (SNSD). This is a classic blockade. They do not want to discuss this topic at all because they assess that the proposal is not acceptable to them. We will convene a session of the House of Peoples again, and this topic will be among the first items on the agenda. I hope that our friends from Sarajevo will then look at things differently,” Covic said.

“Croats are the only ones preserving the fundamental principles of BiH”

He believes that Croats are the only ones today preserving the fundamental principles of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that the policies of “outvoting” are destroying Bosnia and Herzegovina, solely due to the lack of constitutional equality.

“Whoever says today that someone is destroying the constitutional order, I will take them back 20 years when the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina was brutally destroyed every time during the election of the Croat member. Those (Bosniaks) who want BiH on the foundations of the Constitution, or Annexe IV of the Dayton Agreement, must not behave like this. I think that what the political Sarajevo is doing now is the path to the disintegration of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Of course, they have more powerful media, they have a constant need to portray the role of victim from the Homeland War to today,” he claimed in the interview.

He believes that “the source of all problems is in Sarajevo because people there did not recognise that an agreement of the three constituent parties is needed.”

“Sarajevo's policy does not want to work on preserving Bosnia and Herzegovina by sharing it with the representatives of the Serb and Croat people. It is the same as with the referendum on independence or with some other documents. It cannot be Bosniak, nor Croat, nor Serb, but it must be Bosniak, Croat, and Serb. Only in this way can Bosnia and Herzegovina survive. If they think as they have until now, BiH will suffer even greater damage,” Covic threatened in conclusion in the interview with Hrvatski tjednik, Faktor reported.