Even statements by officials from Croatia’s centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) are often more moderate when they speak about Bosnia than those of Croatia’s current President and former leader of the country’s Social Democratic Party, Zoran Milanovic, Croatian political analyst, Zarko Puhovski, told N1 on Wednesday.

Puhovski described the relations between Bosnia and Croatia as “very bad,” arguing that the outcome of Croatian elections makes no difference for Bosnia “having in mind what the supposedly social-democratic president is saying.”

“In some respects, this is even worse than what the people from the HDZ are doing. People from the HDZ in Croatia are often more moderate than Milanovic when it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina. I am afraid that not a lot of progress can be expected,” he said.

“He (Milanovic) insulted not only neighbours, but also many Croatian citizens, including me, many organizations, many politicians. Interestingly, within Croatia, (he attacked) exclusively people on the left side of the political spectrum,” Puhovski said, adding that in some cases the current Croatian President even “spoke more rigidly” about the war than Croatian PM from the HDZ, Andrej Plankovic.

The political analyst noted that Milanovic even “decorated some people who were suspected or convicted of war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” adding that this is something that even former president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic (HDZ) did not dare to do.

Puhovski also spoke about the local elections in Croatia and Bosnia.

Although opposition candidates won the elections in both Zagreb and in Banja Luka, the administrative centre of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity, those two situations are not comparable, he argued.

“The difference in my opinion of the events in Zagreb with the so-called platform ‘Mozemo!’ (We can!) and the situation in Banja Luka is that in Banja Luka one nationalist group has replaced another,” he said, adding that “this could be heard quite clearly from a whole series of statements of the new mayor of Banja Luka.”

Meanwhile, in Zagreb “it is completely clear and we are talking about people who are not nationalists,” he said.