Bosnian Croats will be able to choose between two Croat political options at the upcoming election in October, one being Dragan Covic’s Croat Democratic Union, HDZ, the other an alliance of Croat parties, eager to overthrow him.
A statement issued by the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), led by Nikola Raguz, said the unified Croat opposition is a solution for the falling HDZ in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This opposition alliance will most likely be led by the HDZ 1990, a party that emerged from dissatisfied HDZ members years ago.
The Croatian Party of Rights urged Croats in Bosnia to vote for this alliance and end the unsatisfactory national policy of the HDZ which led to an exodus of Croats from Bosnia towards Germany, Ireland and other EU countries because of the economic and security situation.
“Regarding economy, it is known who controls all the big companies and handles the finances from the state, over the Federation to the cantonal and municipal level,” the statement said.
Would the economy be normally managed, all Bosnian Croats able to work would have a job, not only those in Herzegovina but also those in Central Bosnia, Posavina and the Serb dominated Republika Srpska entity, where even Croatian companies have their representative offices, the party said.
“However, the elite around Covic and the HDZ in Bosnia likes money, expensive cars, lavish houses and apartments, hotels and summer homes in Dalmatia, real estate in Zagreb and a comfortable life more than creating jobs and have their people work,” the statement said.
The HDZ completely failed to provide security and the Covic-Dodik alliance was made on the expense of the Croats, it said.
Dragan Covic formed an alliance with the hard line Serb political leader Milorad Dodik, as the two share the same ambitions to partition of Bosnia along ethnic lines.
Friday’s arrival of some 270 migrants from the Middle East to the asylum centre in Salakovac, near Mostar, is proof the HDZ does not care about the security, the HSP said.
Police from Mostar tried to stop the buses with the unwanted migrants but state authorities in Sarajevo managed to get them to Salakovac anyway and forced the police chief from Mostar who ordered the obstruction to report to the state police, accusing him of a coup.
“The migrants escaped from the new centre the next day, made the city of Mostar unsafe and into a future collection centre for Arabs,” the statement said.
Nobody from the Croat officials in Sarajevo protected police chief Ilija Lasic, who tried to protect the Croat cause, the party said.
“Where are all those HDZ officials who are in Sarajevo and Mostar earning five thousand BAM and that same amount in honorariums and fees additionally?” the party asked.
The Covic-Dodik alliance mist be stopped if Croats want to remain a constitutive nation in Bosnia and Herzegovina “and the last chance to achieve this is the October election,” the statement said.
