High Representative Christian Schmidt's intervention in Bosnia's electoral law is a "success of the Croatian government, while the re-election of Zeljko Komsic as the Bosnian Croat member of the three-member national presidency remains a stain in relations between the two countries," Croatian state news agency Hina surmised statements of the Croatian Foreign Minister, Gordan Grlic-Radman, on Monday.
The international community’s High Representative on Sunday used his so-called Bonn powers to impose changes to the election law which governs the functioning of the upper House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), the country’s Bosniak-Croat entity which covers half of Bosnia.
“The changes are perceived to benefit Bosnian Croats,” Hina said, without explaining what these changes involved.
Croatia’s Foreign Minister, Gordan Grlic-Radman commented on Schmidt’s move, calling it “a great success of the Croatian government and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic,” adding that they had “drawn the attention of their partners and allies” to the “importance of Bosnian Croats enjoying equal status as the other two constituent peoples in the country, the ethnic Bosniaks and Bosnian Serbs.”
“The role of this government is recognized because nothing has been done about this over the last 20 years,” Gina cited Grlic-Radman as saying.
Noting that Schmidt’s decision paves the way towards further reforms, Grlic-Radman “welcomed the fact that his decision was backed by countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom,” Hina said. He said that “thanks to these changes, Bosnian Croats remained a political factor in the country.”
“Without Bosnian Croats, without their political participation, there can be no Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Grlic-Radman was quoted as saying, adding that “what Schmidt did was right and fair.”
Hina did not clarify what did Schmidt do.
At the same time, Zeljko Komsic was again elected as the Bosnian Croat member of the tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sunday’s general election. According to state news agency Hina, this happened “thanks to votes in Bosniak-majority areas.”
Grlic-Radman said that the “outvoting of Bosnian Croats” was doing “long-term damage to institutional functioning and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina” and to “future relations between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
“This will remain a big burden on our relations. I would call it a stain,” he said.
Grlic-Radman said that the re-election of Komsic, an ethnic Croat leader of the centrist DF party traditionally vilified by the Bosnian Croat ethno-nationalist HDZ, was due to him getting “several tens of thousands of votes, thanks to the rhetoric of Croatian President, Zoran Milanović who did harm to certain processes that could have ended better.”
Hina did not clarify which “certain processes” Grlic-Radman was referring to, nor the source of Grlic-Radman’s claims. Although Milanovic, just like the HDZ-led Croatian government, called for changes to the election law in neighboring Bosnia, Milanovic – a former leader of Croatia’s Social Democrats and a vocal opponent of Ukraine’s NATO and EU membership, advocated a more hawkish approach, creating a rift with the HDZ government.
Grlic-Radman said that Milanovic had “confused the High Representative and other actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina” with his statements and probably contributed to “the radicalization of the political scene” there.
“Milanovic had made the situation more difficult by insulting the High Representative,” Grlic-Radman said, adding that his threats of blocking Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO were also “a disservice to Bosnian Croats.”
