Fahrudin Radončić, the president of SBB, spoke in FTV's Dnevnik D about another round of negotiations on the Election Law, what the plan is and why he thinks the agreement is impossible to reach without international mediators.
Tekst se nastavlja ispod oglasa
He says that they negotiated very hard in Neum and that Bosniak-Croat relations are in a never worse crisis.
- We have a savagery of Republic of Srpska, we have one political strategy that we must not allow Bosniaks to have united Croats and Serbs against us, we have non-harmonized relations between Croats and Bosniaks and we have five judgments of the most relevant European courts that we must implement in the sense that others have the right etc. In such a cramped space, the international community, Mr. Palmer, Brussels organized talks in Neum. Mr. Izetbegović, Konaković, Ogrešević and I went there, talked for three days, simulated different models, used the assistance of the Venice Commission and tried to do what is the job of every responsible policy in any country - to try to resolve verdicts, to return some civil dimensions that are missing in the BiH Constitution and in the candidacy and it was one cycle that ended in the way the public knows. We estimated that the worst thing would be the machine that has to work, go forward and sometimes stop, not to shut down and continue negotiations. We negotiated today, we did not make a big step forward. There are some shifts. Our expert teams will work on Saturday and Sunday to see if we can go one step further.
Tekst se nastavlja ispod oglasa
He believes that it will be very difficult to reach an agreement without international mediators, and that it will be even difficult with them.
- This is a very difficult constitutional and legal matter, complicated relations and I think that without great engagement, greater than it was and for which we are very grateful so far, Washington in particular, and Brussels, this agreement will not be possible.
Tekst se nastavlja ispod oglasa
Negotiations have no alternative
When asked if he is optimistic that an agreement on changes to the Election Law can be reached at this stage, he said: "We have an obligation to negotiate, to talk, to have a dialogue. Let's simulate another situation. Let's turn our backs and declare traitors the people who negotiate. What is the alternative? The alternative is to give a very irresponsible, very non-state argument to HDZ or HNS that on February 19 they say Bosniaks do not want to negotiate and we are passing these and those measures and that Bosniaks, and that is hoax towards us by false patriots, take full responsibility for failure Croat-Bosniak talks. There is no dilemma for serious people. We must talk. We will not agree to any blackmail or consent, neither Izetbegović nor Konaković nor Radončić, but the conversation has no alternative due to international mediation, we must not betray the expectations of Washington or Brussels, especially in a situation where you have a great drama about Ukraine. We have been asking for years for the international community to show interest in BiH. And now that interest is being shown you have had very irresponsible politics and politicians who have tried to compromise both Mr Schmidt and Mr Palmer and the lady from Brussels. Now we need to say you don't care about us, and we know we can't do it alone. Then who doesn't want strangers? One who wants a third entity. One who wants the division of BiH. One who may fantasize about a Bosniak state. In that sense, we have no alternative and I can really look everyone in the eye and say yes, we are participating in the negotiations and we will participate and we will never get tired of reaching a peaceful solution. Because the alternative is to reach an agreement, which way, maybe military one? Do we need that? No. "
It is not the most important thing in the world whether the elections will be prolonged for a month or two
Radončić explains that today they analyzed a new model and that experts will simulate it.
"There is one kind of electoral model in the game and that is one story. You have the House of Peoples, you have the election of a member of the Presidency, you have 4-5 big questions, fulfilling the verdicts, etc. Did the three parties say we will not negotiate while Dodik is making chaos? At first glance you have to understand those arguments. Here, that we did not negotiate, that we did not go to Neum, do you think that someone is so naive that they expected Dodik will not make a decision about the HJPC today. You see, he made it, regardless of our negotiations. Man has his secessionist program and he continues it. In hotels, so Dayton is a big base. The most important peace in the world was made in a hotel in Yalta. The problem is that we were in Neum? The agreement is the following and that is the most important thing, I am trying to understand our opponents, everything that is agreed in such places will have to be resolved in BiH institutions because there is voting, in the House of Representatives and Hose of Peoples. So one does not exclude the other. "
He says that if they come up with a solution, it is not the most important thing in the world whether the elections will be prolonged for a month or two.
"Elections must be held. Whether it will be in October or November is not the most important thing if we come to resolve the situation."
Regarding the possible boycott of the parties under the auspices of the HNS, Radončić says that he wants to believe that they will be responsible and that they will not, due to the international community, be allowed to take such responsibility to lead to additional paralysis of the Federation of BiH.
"We are in great paralysis. The federal government has been in a technical mandate for three years. The president of the Federation and two of his deputies are in a technical mandate. 70-80 laws, very important acts are in the houses. We must not allow even greater paralysis. In this sense, I expect that the HNS will have a political reason for its responsibility, that it will not further complicate or blackmail us. No one will agree to any kind of blackmail in the sense that we will solve this and that today and the Bosniak side will give in. That kind of concession is not realistic and should not be expected from us. "
Radončić believes that SDP, DF and Naša stranka are political projects with which they are friends and whose arguments are very well measured and resonated.
"The worst thing is not to do anything. And there you have two types of objections. Today's behavior of the RS Assembly, which brought an incredibly bad, disgusting, illegal thing that is a blow to the BiH legal system, the HJPC law, is proof that I need to negotiate and that our non-negotiation does not affect Milorad Dodik's separatism at all. That argument has been lost. The other one, where we are declared traitors, we have to comment on. Why betrayal if we do not want Bosniaks to be the one to blame for the failure of the negotiations because the Bosniaks refused to negotiate? Why would we irritate our last allies in the EU, and even in the world where there is a kind of anti-Islamic mood? Why would we lose Washington and Brussels in the way that Bosniaks are to blame? Who complains to us that we are traitors? Trust me, people without credibility. If you have been sitting in the chair of a member of the Presidency for 12 years, you have not helped anything in Croat-Bosniak relations, in a better position of BiH on the international scene or in a better position of Bosniaks on the international scene, that does not bother me. You have an even worse situation. You have the president of the Party for BiH, I don't even know his name. A man killed a man in Sarajevo in broad daylight. This can be seen on camera. And he was released thanks to corrupt individuals, for hitting him in the dark. And by corrupting the family. The man belonged to the so-called Malaysian circle. And they had a plan - our children will be educated in Malaysia, while the workers and peasants die, and we will return to take over the state. Such a man, I am talking about the mayor of Novi Grad, says Konaković and Radončić are preparing to betray the country with Čović. And where did I betray the country with Čović? The Party for BiH destroyed 100% for BiH, we got 100% RS. And they destroyed the April package. And their president cannot say anything."
In the chess game with Čović and Dodik, I will help Bakir
When asked what he resents Komšić, he answered: "Mr. Komšić strongly advocates a civic option, I want to believe that. He also wants to repackage BiH from an ethnic combination into a civil state overnight. But that requires a historical process. And that is not possible in a way that you do not have an escalation of relations between Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks. I can complain to Mr. Komšić about a hundred things - you have not done anything in 12 years in power, you are not in the international community, you won one election by saying that you will cut off the fingers of the President of Serbia because he is touching my Bosnia. So cut off something of Milorad Dodik, your are with him every day. Why is nothing happening to Dodik? That kind of populism is good for winning elections, but it is not good for solving big state issues. I am trying and I think that I have a civil relationship with Komšić. This is now an attempt for the DF to play their attacking masters in that vassal position with the SDA, which should probably compromise me and Mr. Konaković, whose only sin is that we are in negotiations. And we are in negotiations because Mr. Izetbegović asked the SDA, in front of Palmer and the European representatives, to expand the circle around him, because the SDA alone cannot make such difficult decisions. And Mr. Izetbegović is right. And we all went there, let's help Bakir. In that chess game with Čović and Dodik, I will help Bakir. It is our obligation to help the SDA, as the strongest Bosniak party, to get out of this. And not in the way that they declare us traitors through Mr. Komšić and these retarded satellites. "
He emphasizes that he has a good and stable political relationship with Nikšić.
"The differences between us and the SDP are legitimate."
Radončić emphasizes that he is not afraid for his political career, but that there will be war.
"I am afraid that Bosniaks will be abused and declared a disruptive factor. That the Bosniak political factor for which we gave 200,000 lives will not be perceived as a positive factor in seeking a way out of the crisis. These are my dilemmas, not how SBB or I will fare in the election. I am absolutely sure, especially when we find a solution, and we will find one, we will not lack the energy to find a solution, that someone will be ashamed after all off this. "
When asked who is now on the move after today's decision of the NARS, he said: "We expect a reaction from two institutions - the State Prosecutor's Office, and before that the OHR should start using its Bonn powers. The OHR is in a position here, it has already let Dodik go too far, that it has to put a dam and that it has to adapt it, in legal terms. "
">Watch Radončić's video interview for FTV via this link.