Bosnia’s leaders have different views on how the country should be set up, but dividing it along ethnic lines would be an “unnatural setup for Bosnia’s spirit,” the leader of the left-leaning liberal Nasa Stranka (Our Party) told N1 on Friday.

Predrag Kojovic commented on a recent statement by Croatian politician and member of the ruling party in that country, Miro Kovac, who proposed that Bosnia should be divided into three regions – which he said is the setup of Belgium as well.

“If Mr. Miro Kovac thinks that is such a good idea, I propose that he implements it in Croatia, and when we see how it works, then we can as well consider it,” Kojovic said, adding that such an idea represents “a primitive past.”

He said that political leaders in Bosnia also advocated a similar idea.

“We are talking about people who understood politics as a continuation of was with different means,” he said, reminding that the Bosnian Serb Presidency member Milorad Dodik has also recently said that it would be best if Bosnia would be divided.

“This was never such a country. It is a completely unnatural setup for Bosnia’s spirit,” he argued.

“Societies which are ethnically or racially ‘clean’ are not possible,” he concluded.

Kovac, however, also gave a statement to N1 on Friday, saying that he is “surprised” by the sudden reactions to what he said coming from Bosnia because he has been expressing the same view throughout the past year in Bosnian and Croatian media.

He said he is glad that a discussion on how to organise Bosnia most efficiently was created.

“I hope that my colleagues in Bosnia will tend to it,” he said.

But Kovac also argued that nobody actually thought about exactly what he said.

“I gave an interview to ‘Oslobodjenje’ end of June where I explained it, there were no negative reactions. I spoke about how Belgium is set up, that there are three regions and three societies,” he said, calling upon those who might discuss his statements in the future to first “get informed.”

“I am certain that this Belgian model would truly be a good basis for a discussion on how to set up Bosnia and Herzegovina most efficiently and more equally,” he said.