The three ethnic ruling parties are trying to “radicalise” the situation “as this has proven to be a great recipe for staying in power,” the leader of the Croatian Party of Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HSP), Nikola Raguz, told N1 on Tuesday.
Raguz commented on the political crisis which prevented the country from forming a government since the October 2018 election.
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The three parties which won the most votes are also the main parties representing the three ethnic majorities in the country – the Party for Democratic Action (SDA) for the Bosniaks, the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) for Croats and the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) for Serbs.
“It is all a political theatre and showing muscle. They are currently working on setting up the playing field so they have the best possible positions in the negotiations,” Raguz said.
It will likely take a lot more time for the government to be formed, “especially because some parties don’t intend to enter the government, they are there already,” he predicted, referring to the SDA and the HDZ whose representatives are in a technical mandate until the new government is formed.
He argued that the option of extraordinary elections should be introduced.
Raguz also criticised a Declaration of long-term goals the SDA adopted on Saturday.It advocates for, among other things, a ‘Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina’, the affirmation of a ‘Bosnian language’ as the ‘common identity of all of Bosnia’s citizens’.
Bosnia is according its Constitution, which is part of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, composed of two semi-autonomous regions – the Serb-majority Republika Srpska (RS) and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), mostly shared between Bosniaks and Croats. The entities are linked into a state by common institutions.
The state-level government is set up according to a power-sharing system between three majority ethnic groups, or ‘constituent peoples’ – Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs.
“The SDA’s Declaration is completely unacceptable for the HSP. The SDA sent a strong message that it is moving away from the Dayton Agreement in an indirect way,” Raguz said.
