Čović becomes a burden for Dodik and Izetbegović

What does it tell us that the workers of Aluminij go to the president of HDZ to beg for jobs? Besides the fact that the majority of them will remain unemployed, it means that decisions in the country are not made by institutions that, according to the principles of responsibility and competence, should manage social processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but rather decisions are made on their behalf by political elites in whose hands all that power is wrongly concentrated. And how a society in which decisions are made by criminalized politics ends up is best seen in the example of the Aluminij workers who, after optimistic meetings with Dragan Čović, will go home each carrying an unemployment agency booklet?

Čović said that the Management of Aluminij will prepare a draft recovery program for the company, agreed upon with the Trade Union, and announced that representatives of the Federation Government will come to Mostar to, presumably, support what he has agreed upon regarding Aluminij and what the Government will finally endorse. He stated that there is no postponement of the agreement to complete the restructuring program of Aluminij by July 31st and emphasized that "we must have a clear plan with certain assumptions." If Čović is so powerful that he can promise workers that the restructuring program of the defunct factory will be completed by July 31st, does that mean he could have also influenced the fact that the collapse of the Mostar giant did not happen at all? Therefore, the real question is why Čović allowed Aluminij to accumulate a debt of around 400 million that it can no longer service, especially since the management of Aluminij has been exclusively appointed by HDZ from the end of the war until today? Or, what kind of country is this in which one politician can decide on the life and death of the largest factory in Herzegovina, alongside a functioning Management, Supervisory Board, Company Assembly, small and large shareholders, numerous inspections, police, and prosecution? It can be freely concluded that the situation with Aluminij is crystal clear - there is no doubt that Čović is also aware that Aluminij is going bankrupt - perhaps that is even his primary goal, which is the subject of another article - so after the factory served as HDZ's ATM for years, now Čović is trying to turn the fall of Aluminij to his own advantage, appearing as a Messiah who will even make the workers' dismissals dignified. While the workers outside the company were shouting "thieves, thieves" and "betrayal, betrayal", throwing bottles at the HDZ president's car, Čović said: "There is no personal moral responsibility on my part. If anyone needed to be thanked in the last four or five years, it was me. The management commented on that. They mostly called Dragan to ask if something could be bridged." You should ask the heads of Elektroprivreda HZHB how Dragan bridged it, who provided Aluminij with electricity on credit worth nearly 300 million KM?

The problems with Aluminij that shake HDZ and Čović are also shaking coalition partners from SDA and SBB. If Fadil Novalić's Government decides to save Aluminij as Čović promised the workers - although the Government has had no insight into the company's operations in recent years, even though it is the largest shareholder in Aluminij, which is again a topic for another article - both SDA and SBB, who together with HDZ form the current FBiH Government, could face trouble with traditional voters in the Local Elections next year, as it would be understood as saving Čović and HDZ, who, in cooperation with Dodik, are openly undermining any hope that Bosnia and Herzegovina could become an economically strong and politically independent internationally recognized state. It would be a kind of rescue of a wounded crocodile that, even after being offered a hand, will not change its aggressive instinct. Or, it would be a kind of empathy towards one's own enemy. 

Čović faces the same kind of dramatic situation on an ethnic level with Milorad Dodik. After Dodik, for the interests of HDZ, prevented Bosnia and Herzegovina from filing a lawsuit against Croatia over the construction of the Pelješac bridge, thereby attempting to justify the coalition between Čović and Dodik to some extent before HDZ's resentful voters, Dodik received thanks from Croatia in the form of a landfill for nuclear waste that Croatian authorities plan to place in Trgovska Gora on the border with BiH, or almost directly next to Dodik's backyard. 

To make the paradox even greater, in order to regain the trust of radical voters whom he has lost due to the difficult position of Croats in BiH, due to pursuing pro-Russian rather than European policies in the country, but also due to blunders made in recent months with business-political connections with Dodik, such as attending Dodik's reception on January 9th in Banja Luka where General Slavko Lisica was posthumously decorated, a general convicted in Croatia for war crimes against Croats, Čović and HDZ plan to celebrate the persecution and suffering of Serbs from Glamoč, Grahovo, and Drvar at the end of the month with the highest honors and songs by Marko Perković Thompson. It will be interesting to see how Dodik will explain to his voters the continuation of the coalition with Čović after that celebration, especially at a time when, with the victory of Mirko Šarović as the president of SDS, Dodik's policy is perhaps the most threatened since he has been in power in Republika Srpska in the last ten to fifteen years.

Everything suggests that the national leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina have become entangled in their own lies, and that, although they have supported each other in power for years, this time, while saving their own skins, they might start pushing each other into the abyss.