Baralija: In Paris, Kordić Lobbied for HDZ's Election Law Model Instead of for Mostar

MOSTAR, (Patria) - Mario Kordić, the mayor of Mostar, yesterday, during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, repeated one of the great untruths often heard from HDZ leaders. That is the one about Mostar being the only truly multicultural city in BiH, states Irma Baralija, a councilor of Naša stranka in the Mostar City Council, in a reaction. 

"As for multiculturalism, it is not enough for different cultures to simply exist side by side in one geographical area; much more is needed. For example, that children are not segregated in schools, that fascism is removed from street names, that the glorification of war criminals stops. The largest anti-fascist memorial in Herzegovina, the Partisan Cemetery in Mostar, has been vandalized with fascist symbols and threats against Muslims. The mayor ignores requests to remove the traces of vandalism. In Mostar, until this year, even Serbs, as a constituent people, could not exercise their rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and Others still cannot because it is precisely HDZ, the mayor's party, and SDA, HDZ's long-time coalition partner, that are blocking the adoption of the Statute that would resolve this discrimination.

The mayor, judging by what the media reported, used the visit to France to lobby for an Election Law tailored to HDZ, which is actually a replica of the Mostar agreement, an electoral model under which HDZ and SDA won the last elections in Mostar and which will always make that victory easier for them. The Mostar electoral model deepened divisions, contributed to the suppression of political pluralism, cemented political discrimination against others, and, in short, politically legitimized a state created by the end of the war, violence, and hatred. This visit showed that Mayor Kordić is not in that position for the citizens of Mostar, because if he were, he would have used the visit to France to lobby for projects that would improve the quality of life in the city. He is there to use his position to promote the ideology and views of his party," Baralija stated.