Anyone dealing with politics in Bosnia should be working toward membership in NATO as it would guarantee that no wars will take place in the country, but the issue should have never turned into a political crisis, the leader of the liberal Nasa Stranka (Our Party, NS), Predrag Kojovic, told N1 on Monday.
“I think that this should be the goal of everyone dealing with politics,” he said of Bosnia’s path toward NATO, adding that the issue has nothing to do with any political affiliations or ideologies. “Our primary goal is that people here are calm and safe.”
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The party leader spoke about the political crisis which has prevented Bosnia from forming its government – officially called the Council of Ministers – since the October 2018 election.
The reason behind the deadlock is disagreement over Bosnia’s path toward NATO membership – specifically, whether Bosnia will send the Annual National Programme (ANP), a part of the process and an obligation the country took over previously, to the alliance.
The Bosniak and Croat members of the tripartite Presidency said they would not vote for the new Prime Minister, who is supposed to come from the main Bosnian Serb party in the country because his party is opposed to sending the document. Bosnian Serb representatives, however, say they will never agree to the ANP being sent.
“I seriously don’t see how the same group of people, doing what they have been doing until now, can leave a situation which they have created themselves,” Kojovic said, referring to the political leaders.
“We are not forming a government for months already because of something called the ANP, something nobody even knew existed until a few months ago, nor what it means,” he said, adding that a lot of people commenting on the document probably never read those 165 pages. If they did, they would realise that “this is a benign bureaucratic document, which includes 30 pages on gender equality,” he said.
One can only speculate what the true reasons behind the deadlock are, he said.
“I believe the main reason is that (Bosnian Serb leader Milorad) Dodik does not have the goal of forming the Council of Ministers, but wants to prove that this country cannot function and survive,” Kojovic argued.
