President Zoran Milanovic said on Thursday he would like the issue of Bosnia and Herzegovina's electoral law to be dealt with by political pressure through NATO, but if that failed, he would support the Croatian National Assembly if it were to initiate the territorial re-organisation of Bosnia.

The head of the Croatian National Assembly (HNS) of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragan Covic, said on Wednesday that the decision to call a general election for October 2 was a direct threat to peace and stability in the country after Bosniak parties announced they would oust the Croats from power after the election. He announced steps to reform the territorial organisation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which many see as a demand for establishing a third, Croat-majority entity.

“What they are doing is a serious matter. I would not want it to go in that direction, but if it does, I will support them,” Milanovic told the press in the northern Adriatic city of Pula during a visit to Istria County.

He recalled that the HNS had announced this course of action on February 18 and now they only repeated it.

“If our politicians, including Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, read what the institutions of the Croatian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina write, rather than deal with futile EU treatises, they might understand something,” Milanovic said.

He said he would rather this issue were dealt with in the manner he suggested. “And that is this case of NATO enlargement. This is a moment of truth for Croatia. Either we are a nation or we are not.”

Milanovic wants to make Croatia’s support for the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO conditional on changing the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has said several times that he is opposed to the two countries’ NATO membership bids unless the law in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which allows the more numerous Bosniaks to outvote the Croats, is changed.

He said that the electoral law issue should be resolved “by pressure, not by blackmail, but by political pressure through NATO.” “Justice should be done. This problem can be solved by a decree by the High Representative (of the international community). That’s possible,” he added.

“I am clear on this. Plenkovic then needs to say, ‘I will do everything for Finland and Sweden to enter NATO. OK, that’s your position, then we know where we stand. Then my room for manoeuvre is also limited. I cannot block this in NATO on my own. I can tell the ambassador to NATO to block it and Plenkovic can say no. Then the ambassador can abstain from voting, and decisions adopted with abstentions pass,” the president said.

Milanovic said that the leader of the Bosniak-majority Democratic Action Party (SDA), Bakir Izetbegovic, was under Ankara’s control and that he did as he pleased.

He also commented on the forthcoming visit of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Sarajevo and Mostar. “That was arranged by Plenkovic. I guess it will be a funeral party. The woman is coming to lay flowers on the grave. Will she support the Croats and their fundamental rights? Nothing more than that.”

“Why is she going to Sarajevo and Mostar – to support the election that was called yesterday by the usurper, the Central Election Commission, or to support the Croatian National Assembly? Not the HDZ,” Milanovic said, adding that the Commission president should have come “two months ago, a year ago.”

Speaking of Zeljko Komsic, the Croat member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency, Milanovic said: “In the case of a just solution, he loses everything. He cannot be a Presidency member any more. Bakir can, he is playing a different kind of game. This is a coordinated Bosniak action. They are counting on the Croats’ inferiority in number, because there are not enough Croats.”