Years Devoured by Optimism: Sejdić and Finci Pass Judgment on Čović and Izetbegović

- At the meeting with Izetbegović, I agreed that we should resolve the Sejdić-Finci ruling within the next two months. This entails amending the Election Law, says Dragan Čović, leader of the HDZ.

- It will be difficult to do that by the end of the year. Otherwise, I think Mr. Čović is a bit more optimistic than is realistic – says Bakir Izetbegović, leader of the SDA.

It is strange that Izetbegović is concerning himself with the inner world of Dragan Čović's optimism, instead of just talking about clear dates after more than eight years of waiting for the implementation of the European Court's ruling. And this disagreement seems somewhat staged, because Čović claims they reached an agreement.

For the uninitiated, and there are few of them, Čović and Izetbegović are coalition partners who announce they will lead BiH and its citizens into the EU. Essentially, the only priority issue is resolving the disenfranchisement of Others.

In this case, Čović and Izetbegović are only talking about themselves, not about the key problem of national equality in BiH, for which there is also a ruling from Strasbourg. When combined, this can only produce serious amounts of pessimism.

Candidate status for BiH is expected by the end of 2017, but how these two have envisioned it, aside from the infamous reform agenda, they cannot explain.

The "Sejdić-Finci" ruling is not a Croatian issue, but an issue of the position of Others, yet it is precisely these Others who are being heard less and less, because the constituent peoples are deaf to their demands.

The "Deaf" say that implementing the Sejdić and Finci ruling will strengthen the state and that there can be no more flouting of the ruling.

It is a court decision that must be respected, but this pair wants to incorporate into it what they want to make of the state of BiH.

You can cheat as much as you want, but you cannot falsify life. There is no coexistence without equality for all. If Others finally got their rights, they could motivate everyone else to look at BiH in a realistic way as a community of equality. But the outmaneuvering continues, and there is no solution.

Deadlines are expiring, even though the politicians set them for themselves. They are far from a solution because everyone has their own definition of equality and of Others. On a variation of this theme, 150 meetings were held in 30 months, 50 proposals were on the table, but no solution was found! So why does Čović think he can resolve his issue in two months?

The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is still not in compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights, as stated in the ruling in the Sejdić-Finci case, and a two-thirds majority in the state parliament must be found. There are 14 parties sitting there, and it will be difficult, but without it BiH cannot enter the EU, no matter how much the ruling parties mention progress and praise their (non)work.

From the seats of European institutions, they are silent for now, but it is clear that the implementation of the "Sejdić and Finci" ruling is understood as the most serious test of the political and democratic maturity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Sejdić-Finci ruling actually demands a departure from the Dayton model, and that the exclusivity of the constituent peoples be reduced, not increased.

And it is precisely here that the hypocrisy of the leaders is seen, who, when they have nothing to say to the citizens, utter these absurdities about optimism and pessimism. Citizens continue to live very poorly and look at the doors of the European Union with wallets emptied of optimism.

The ruling of the European Court in Strasbourg in the Sejdić-Finci case is increasingly becoming a verdict on this political establishment, led by Čović and Izetbegović. Which seems very pessimistic for them.