"Coalition for Mostar" is a fantastic and potent idea in pro-Bosnian politics, said tonight Fahrudin Radončić, president of the Alliance for a Better Future, as a guest on N1 television.
- All of us, including me, who was one of the initiators, found the capacity to overcome personal vanities, and even some party interests. That coalition must not fall apart. I am also sorry that even party of Mr. Hadžikadić was not there. Because of their thousand votes, we can lose one mandate. This coalition is very potent in pro-Bosnian, if you will, in Bosniak politics, in coalition with the HDZ, where it is very important to get a mayor who will unite and build the city. I really don't expect there to be irresponsible people who would break up such a coalition. Every party likes to have as many mandates as possible, but, I told you a moment ago, I expect an extraordinary cooperation within that coalition and for me it is not even a priority whether SBB will have three or five, or 2 or four mandates, and SDA 7 or 5. It is important that we get those 18 or 19 hands where we can elect a mayor from BH bloc - said Radončić.
It would be wise and politically fair to leave Mostar to the people of Mostar
When asked if this is a call from BH bloc to form a coalition and appoint a mayor together, Radončić said:
- I think that's the way to do it. Here we have the inevitable HDZ factor. I do not think that the HDZ should be excluded from power anywhere where you have a large representation of Croats in the electorate and I expect a compromise and agreement between all.
Radončić said that he had a meeting today with the president of the SDP, Nermin Nikšić, and that we should wait for the votes to be counted and the mandates to be determined, and then to talk.
- I think that we from the Coalition must sit down and create a common platform for this coalition led by Mr. Nikšić and HDZ. It must not be the decision of Mr. Izetbegović, Radončić, any of us in a way that is negotiated individually on behalf of the coalition. I also think that it would be politically fair and wise to leave Mostar to the people of Mostar. What I said the day I went to Mostar, Mostar in two means the division of B&H into three. These are very responsible people, I mean the members of our coalition, both Nikšić and HDZ. I really expect that we will get a new government in Mostar that will start removing those strong ruins, a government that will deal with the construction of the city, that will deal with a new relationship between Bosniaks and Croats. That it will not be a constant fight, but that new elections make sense if they give a new policy, and the new policy is the result of something that the people of Mostar need - he added.
There is no chance for a coalition with the SDA
The host was interested in the chances that this coalition, which was for Mostar, would continue to function and be on the list for the general elections in two years.
- None as far as SBB is concerned - said Radončić.
Asked if there was a problem only with the SDA, he explained:
- The problem is that we really entered the coalition with the SDA at the state level, then there was that big problem of Dodik and the situation in which there was a question whether he would turn the police into an army. This situation has stabilized. We have shown through the Coordinating Body and the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Security that we know what we are doing. Our coalition partners did not like that and I think that the page of cooperation between SBB and SDA in the coalition capacity is over with Mostar.
Commenting on the HDZ's views on the regularity of the elections, the SBB president said that there had been cases prosecuted before.
- You have seen the case now before the B&H judiciary, at the Court of B&H, where a high-ranking SDA official, Mr. Kamber, stole my votes in the last elections for a member of the Presidency, together with the SDP, to be very precise. This confirms what we, ie SBB and I have been saying for years, until the electronic voter list is determined, until fair rules of the game are made, you will always have this situation - he said.
He added that "people from the HDZ watched the thefts that took place in the so-called Bosniak political space with a lot of disinterest. And now you suddenly have a very violent reaction."
- It happened to me two or three times, it's not a problem. The problem is that together, and, unfortunately or fortunately, the situation is such that it cannot change the Election Law without legitimate representatives of the Croatian people, even in the technical sense, not only the one they insist on, to see who votes, why do the dead vote ...
I will dedicate myself to politics
When asked by the host whether he was resigning from the head of SBB, Radončić resolutely denied it.
- On the contrary, I think completely differently. In the next two years, I will absolutely dedicate myself to dealing with politics, strengthening SBB and strengthening the alternative for B&H citizens. You have the strengthening of the right option through the result of the SDA and the People and Justice, and I have already said that we must give the citizens an alternative by strengthening one position of the center, one secularist political option, I primarily mean SDP and SBB, and Naša stranka, therefore, the parties of the left and the center, that this capacity, but through one great diligence, among the membership, among the citizens, in 2022. come as a serious alternative - he pointed out.
Speaking about Izetbegović's statement that he is in the destructive phase, Radončić said that he had already reacted in that regard.
- I had to answer him that if the destructive phase is that I insist on prosecuting those who stole on respirators, or gloves, or masks, if the destructive phase is that we as SBB insist on clarifying many things, then I agree to be a destroyer.
When asked if he is overthrowing the Tuzla Canton Government, he said "yes".
- Because we understood the message of the citizens in the local elections. The citizens obviously do not want SBB to be with the SDA. They want us to be an alternative, or a competition or a rival of the SDA, and in that sense we will go to make a distance in Tuzla Canton, in Sarajevo by the nature of things it is already been done, and I did it when I left the Council of Ministers - he explained.
He was asked how he would vote in the B&H Parliamentary Assembly when the initiative to remove the Council of Ministers comes up on the agenda.
- I'm quite embarrassed to speak because I was part of that story. I must tell you that I was previously a member of the Council of Ministers which was really representative. There was Mr. Lagumdžija, Nović, Mirko Šarović, Mr. Bevanda, there were mega strong players. In this Council of Ministers, unfortunately, there are no such names because younger people are in question, while I was there, I even felt some dynamism and some cohesion, connecting factor in that engagement, running ... Unfortunately, the last two or three months we do not see any results. So as far as we are concerned, we will vote for the dismissal. We do not have that type of complex - he specified.
We must restore the sovereignist consciousness of Bosniaks
Radončić explained his status on social networks, saying that "at the founding Congress of SBB in 2010, he said that we must return the sovereign world to Bosniaks primarily, and even others."
- Bosniaks used to look to Constantinople, later to Belgrade or Zagreb, to the central committees. We are now a free political people, a very grown political factor, and we did not need to bring Erdogan to Sarajevo, then I said that for the first time because of Erdogan. Then, in the meantime, we had someone bring Mr. Vučić, or Tadić, someone brought Plenković or someone else. We are alone, in which we should not be partitioned at least as Bosniaks, have made B&H a colony, where everyone will come and make political points: Erdogan, if he needs to make political points for the elections, he will come to B&H - he added.
Speaking about Serbia's decision regarding the border crossing, he said that Komšić reacted statesmanlike when he called President Vučić.
- When I was the Minister of Security, in the most dramatic moments of the pandemic, when the European borders closed, when everyone gave a regional answer, I had direct communication with the Minister of the Interior of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. I was even objected to, as if I were a traitor for having that communication. And we have made the whole region respond evenly. Today, because the Ministry of Security is not doing its job, or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, fortunately Mr. Komšić reacted, and he reacted as a statesman, he called President Vučić, or vice versa, and asked what was happening. If it had been the time when I was a minister, we would have arranged all this through our border police, chiefs of staff or directly, this kind of misunderstanding would not have happened, or it would have been resolved much more simply, faster at the level of institutions that need to do it, The Ministry of Security, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, without the involvement of the heads of state - Radončić pointed out.
