The Croat member of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency summoned the Croatian Ambassador to Bosnia for an urgent meeting to discuss a statement his country’s President made in Israel, allegedly stating there that Bosnia was “controlled by militant Islamists.”
The statements were reported by the Jerusalem Post and caused outrage in Sarajevo but President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic later denied she said anything like this.
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According to political analyst Ivana Maric, Grabar-Kitarovic’s Israel statements are only part of her election campaign.
“Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has shown already what kind of a politician she is and that Croatia deserves a better president. Bosnia and Herzegovina too deserves a president of the neighbouring country who will behave fairly,” said Maric.
“I am sorry that there is no better way for her to win her election for president,” she said, adding that Grabar-Kitarovic “helped our politicians who are now competing in who will respond to her more strongly.”
“We see that the government has not been formed for nine months and this will suit them so they fill the newspapers as they have nothing else to say,” she added.
One of the deputy leaders of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) agreed with this assessment, saying that the Croatian President’s statements are only her prelude to her presidential election campaign in Croatia and her reaction to her fear of losing the vote.
“Everyone came to the defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but I am waiting for a response and reaction from people from (Bosnia’s) Croat Democratic Union (HDZ), which is a sister party (of Croatia’s HDZ),” Lana Prlic said.
“We know that Croatia often meddles where it is not supposed to,” she said, expressing hope that the next Croatian President will be more like former President Stjepan Mesic.
Among the numerous reactions by political parties in Bosnia was also the one from the centre-left Nasa Stranka (Our Party).
“The main topic of the meeting between Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and the President of Israel was the Holocaust and Croatia’s society facing its fascist past. One needs to be an exceptional hypocrite to tell Israel how Croatia, where fascism is being reborn at every step, has overcome its fascist past, and that is what she told them,” the party said.
“When she can do that, then it is absolutely not surprising that she lies about Bosnia and Herzegovina being under the control of militant Islam,” it added.
“Such a narrative is fascistic and we have no doubt that she wants to spread hatred toward Muslims in order to bring them exactly into the position the Jews were in during WWII,” the party stressed, adding that Bosnia needs to send a letter to Israel’s President and deny her statements on Bosnia, but also present evidence of Croatia’s “very bad attitude toward the victims of WWII fascism.”
