Dodik went for his opinion, Čović's came through the Orašje gate

By Muharem Cero

In the Eid atmosphere, extremely strange, and one might say inappropriate (of course, by Bosnian-Muslim standards), two events significant for Bosnia and Bosniaks occurred.

Today's meeting between Dodik and Vučić in Belgrade only provides a partial answer to the months-long speculation about the content of the announced 'Declaration on the Protection and Preservation of the Serbian People'. Despite the possible content of the Declaration offered to the public, one should not be too quick to 'swallow' the answer. For now, it would be more advisable to recognize the form of its adoption and enactment.

Namely, the Belgrade actors agree that the final text of the Declaration will be subject to adoption in the National Assemblies of Serbia and the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska. The legal basis for this form is the Dayton Peace Agreement and the right to so-called parallel special relations between Serbia and the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska. However, it is clear that the Dayton right to these special relations cannot encompass the pure ethnic rights of the Serbian people in the RS, as this entity is not an exclusively ethnic administrative unit. Given the discriminatory nature of this form, and likely the content itself, this points to an overreach and unconstitutionality of the proposed model for enacting the Declaration. One hopes that President Vučić himself will recognize this, resist the trap Dodik is drawing him into, and realize any potential Declaration with adjusted content through the model of cultural, scientific, folklore, and similar institutions of the two related peoples in Serbia and the RS, for which there is a Dayton basis.

Almost identically, the leader of the HDZ, Andrej Plenković, visited Bosnia. Surprisingly, this time he did not come from the south, nor from the heart of Bosnia, but quietly as if through the Orašje gate. His visit to Bosnia is announced as a charitable act. There is talk of Croatian projects in the visited areas, which the 'mother country Croatia' intends to finance. One does not need to be too naive to be satisfied with just this explanation. The state of relations between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina requires urgent resolution or threatens a deeper disruption (which is the more likely scenario).

The mentorship of Zagreb over the policies of Dragan Čović and even the HNS is confirmed or fails based on the positive resolution of the accumulated demands of the Bosnian HDZ, and above all, the great expectations in the case of amendments to the Election Law of BiH. It can be assumed that Plenković's one-day visit to Bosnia is much more in the function of confirming the unquestionable Zagreb mentorship than the benefits from two or three projects 'worth a few million kuna'.

It will be, however, that Dodik went to Belgrade for his opinion, while Čović had the privilege of not having to travel far, as his opinion simply came through the Orašje gate.