Čović's HDZ BiH Oppresses Croats in Široki Brijeg, Rules Like Marie Antoinette

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Due to the silencing of the President of the HDZ1990 Councilors' Club, Antonija Banožić, councilors of that party today demonstratively left the 11th session of the Municipal Council of Široki Brijeg.

This is how the statement from HDZ 1990, the loyal political follower of Dragan Čović's HDZ BiH, begins. In their lament for the media, HDZ 1990 states that HDZ BiH rules like Marie Antoinette. In translation, the legitimate HDZ of Dragan Čović is mistreating Croats in Široki Brijeg, and for that, it cannot blame anyone else, especially not Sarajevo.

"The President of the Municipal Council, Vinko Topić, grossly violated the City Statute, as well as the Council's Rules of Procedure, when he silenced councilor Banožić, who tried to respond to Mayor Miro Kraljević by presenting him with a media article where he promised many years ago that the renovation of the Tobacco Station was a priority, and to this day nothing has been done. Besides the aforementioned, the Mayor and the Municipal Council, where HDZ BiH has an absolute majority, did not accept any of the 11 amendments and 13 proposals from the HDZ 1990 Councilors' Club," they state from HDZ 1990.

And they add: "How good and useful the amendments and proposals of HDZ 1990 were is evidenced by the fact that some were supported even by HDZ BiH councilors. During the vote on the non-transparent budget of Široki Brijeg for 2022, only four HDZ 1990 councilors voted against its adoption, which is also a kind of indicator that they are the only true opposition in the Municipal Council."

"The atmosphere at the session further heated up when the discussion turned to salary grades and coefficients, and the amount of the meal allowance for employees in the City Administration, where the President of the HDZ 1990 Councilors' Club, Antonija Banožić, requested information on what the highest, lowest, and average salaries of employees and civil servants in the City Administration would be under these proposed salary grades and coefficients, then what the salary of Mayor Miro Kraljević and Municipal Council President Vinko Topić would be, and for performing which tasks the two of them have been receiving a monthly official allowance of 600 KM for the mayor and 300 KM for the Council President, which they awarded to each other. The councilor received an answer in part where the Head of the Finance Department, Dijana Sesar, stated that these official allowances were abolished by order of the Office for Audit of Institutions, and that allocations for the meal allowance were reduced from the previous 2 percent of the average net salary paid in the Federation of BiH to 1 percent since 2016, which is not true because the Report of the Office for Audit of Institutions for 2019 states that the meal allowance was also paid at 2 percent that year. Upon councilor Banožić's insistence on the amount of salaries in the City Administration, Mayor Kraljević angrily snapped that his salary, in accordance with the new salary grades and coefficients, would be even higher than before. At the end of the session, the mayor arrogantly told councilor Banožić that it was not worth 'spending ammunition' on him because of his many years at the head of Široki Brijeg, probably meaning he is like Kim Jong-un and will be in that position for life. We tell the mayor that a proper analysis of his work was done by the profession, namely the Office for Audit of Institutions of the Federation of BiH, which established back in 2019 that over 16 million marks were distributed illegally over 16 years of his mandate, without established rules and criteria, i.e., through the mayor's friend-acquaintance connections," the statement said.

In addition, it is added, it is evident that the city has stagnated in development for years and that citizens are given false promises from election to election, such as the renovation of the Tobacco Station, the roundabout at Lise, the construction of a wastewater treatment plant, water supply, city market, and other long-announced but never completed projects.

"The meal allowance in the City Administration is half the average salary in Široki Brijeg, and the salary of Mayor Miro Kraljević and Municipal Council President Vinko Topić is almost four times higher than the average salary in Široki Brijeg, which is 799 KM. And how will they then understand and share the fate of their people? No way. At a time when the people of Široki Brijeg are struggling with numerous price increases and are true artists at survival, Mayor Miro Kraljević behaves like Marie Antoinette and tells citizens: 'If you have no bread, eat cake!'," the HDZ 1990 statement said.