The leader of one of the left-leaning parties that have formed a pro-Bosnian bloc after the election in October is having doubts about the bloc’s recent refusal to enter a coalition with the Bosniak Party for Democratic Action (SDA) and be part of the government.
The BH Bloc promised never to enter a coalition with any ethnic-oriented party and opted for remaining the opposition, but Zeljko Komsic, the leader of The Democratic Front (DF), told the Montenegrin “Pobjeda” that he is questioning what voters will say after the Bloc decided to again stay away from the government.
“At some point, citizens will rightly ask – why are we voting for you? He who thinks that the BH Bloc will at next election win 51 per cent of the votes and be able to form the government alone is naive,” Komsic said.
The (SDA) insisted on a coalition with the BH Bloc but after it was rejected multiple times, it reached out to the two other nationalist parties, the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Bosnian Serb Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD).
The three can now form a government although the latter two aim to change the internal structure of Bosnia or disintegrate it while the SDA is vehemently against that, just like the BH Bloc is.
The way things stand now, important issues will be soon on the agenda, like the Election Law which the HDZ wants to change so that people can vote only for members of their own ethnic group – something the SDA is firmly against.
But Komsic said he fears the SDA may give in to the HDZ request without the BH Bloc being able to prevent it as it is not part of the government.
“By avoiding to participate in the government, have we given the SDA a green light to make a deal with the HDZ?” Komsic asked, adding that if such a deal is made, citizens will rightfully question the BH Bloc’s decision.
“Will the citizens be right when they say – why did you not fight? Why did you run away? That’s what I’m afraid of,’ he asked, noting that when one participates in government, then one can prevent some things and change others.
Komsic noted that his experience with the SDA is bad but that he is thinking of the consequences of the BH Bloc’s decision.
“You get the opportunity to stop some negative processes and you refuse to do it. What’s the excuse? I’m disgusted with them? OK, I’m disgusted with them too but people have voted for them and that’s the reality,” Komsic said about the SDA.
It is much better to enter a political battle because only then you have a chance to win, he said.
The BH Bloc is linked by the common idea of a multiethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina as a citizen-oriented country, he said, noting that one of the parties of the Bloc, the Social Democrats (SDP), have started dividing citizens into ‘rurals’ and ‘urbans’, which is wrong.
