After the Sarajevo-based media attacked Plenkovic over his interview in which he commented on the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Grlic Radman said that the Croatian prime minister was advocating compliance with the ECHR rulings, which insist on honouring the rights of all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and those of the country’s Constitutional Court which guarantee the rights of the Croats.

“The president is bored. He doesn’t really have any topics, so he simply comments on anything that crosses his mind. He speaks from various places in Croatia, acting like a travelling circus, which gives the impression that he has a monopoly on all topics,” Grlic Radman told the press during a visit to the Marian shrine of Marija Bistrica, describing Milanovic as “a fraud” and “a deceiver of the public”.

He pointed out that this government headed by Andrej Plenkovic made the greatest effort and succeeded in securing the rights and improving the status of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, its foreign policy affirmation and the upcoming opening of accession negotiations with the European Union.

He said that it was Milanovic who had spoken ill of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, “almost ignoring and even humiliating them in a way.”

“During his premiership, Milanovic had supported Zeljko Komsic (as the Croat representative on the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Messages came from his government to the effect that Croatia had committed aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina (in the 1990s). How can such a person talk about consistency and credibility?” Grlic Radman said.

“President Milanovic has done nothing to improve the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the contrary, he did everything contrary to the government’s policy,” he added.

The foreign minister went on to say that the president had subordinated all the “meagre achievements” of his talks with foreign officials to his own interests. He noted Milanovic does not represent Croatia abroad, and that he had refused to meet UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the UN General Assembly session in 2021.

On the other hand, Grlic Radman highlighted the foreign policy efforts and activities of the prime minister.

“Prime Minister Plenkovic’s visit to Sarajevo and Mostar was the visit of a statesman who stood up the most for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the European family, and his statements were misinterpreted,” Grlic Radman said, adding that they were misinterpreted by those who “don’t care about security and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

“Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said that he supports the implementation of all decisions of the European Court, as well as all judgments of the Constitutional Court, above all the one in the Ljubic case, which guarantees the equality of all peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the Croats,” the foreign minister said.

He said that the Croatian government would continue to advocate for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s electoral law to be changed, to remove all forms of discrimination in the electoral process in order to ensure the equality of the Croats and the political legitimacy of their representation.

Responding to a journalist’s remark that in the Republika Srpska, the Serb half of Bosnia and Herzegovina, both Croat and Bosniak children would be taught in school about Bosnian Serb war criminals Karadzic and Mladic, Grlic Radman replied that this was certainly not good.