Grassley Shatters HDZ Narrative: The "Troika" Strengthened Dodik's Separatism Through Silence on Čović's Support

(Patria) - One of the fundamental political narratives existing in the political life of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the one built under the auspices of HDZ BiH, or the narrative that HDZ BiH and Dragan Čović are fighting against unitarism and separatism.

Unitarism, from that political perspective, is something that belongs to Bosniak parties and parties based in Sarajevo, while in the political activities of SNSD and Milorad Dodik, HDZ and Čović allegedly see Serbian separatism.

Although they very rarely, or almost never, oppose Serbian separatist activities, a circle of HDZ analysts and activists, when absolutely necessary and in the interest of HDZ, points out in public that these two currents are at play in BiH, completely equating them and allegedly considering them equally detrimental to BiH.

The same narrative is advocated by officials of the Republic of Croatia and Croatian MEPs when they want to cover up their support for Dodik's separatism and blame so-called "political Sarajevo" for all problems in BiH.

Of course, this is another deception from the HDZ's kitchen, as both Dragan Čović and official Zagreb openly side with Dodik's separatism. This is done without distinction by Croatian President Zoran Milanović, and most often subtly, by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

The false Greater Croatian equidistance in relation to non-existent unitarism and quite real Serbian separatism has been exposed by numerous examples in political reality. However, these days the HDZ narrative has suffered a strong blow when Chuck Grassley, a US senator close to President Donald Trump, criticizing Milorad Dodik's separatist policy, accused the leadership of BiH Croats of supporting separatism.

"Milorad Dodik is the leader of Serbs in Bosnia who supports separatism. Now Bosnian Croat separatists are joining the act, which is worrying because it reminds many people from Iowa who fled separatist violence after the wars and genocide of those years of the 90s. Separatists did not fare well then, and they will not fare well now," Grassley wrote on his X profile.

Senator Grassley thus successfully exposed the duplicitous policy pursued by the HDZ leader, which is merely a continuation of the UZP (Joint Criminal Enterprise) policy from the nineties, which ended in defeat on the battlefield inflicted by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and which ended with verdicts from international courts according to which the leaders of the so-called Herceg Bosna were sentenced to 111 years in prison.

It is precisely the revival of that Herceg Bosna that Milorad Dodik recommends to the current HDZ leadership, so no one should be surprised from where Grassley draws a clear conclusion about the act of involving Croatian separatists in Dodik's separatist movement. It is known that Čović's separatism is nothing more than an integral part of Dodik's secessionist action.

The leaders of the "Troika" also know this, yet it is difficult to expect that the "Troika", although close associates and allies of Donald Trump, will draw any lessons from this by condemning HDZ's support for Serbian separatism, because they owe their political existence to official Zagreb and Dragan Čović.

Moreover, with their subservient attitude towards official Zagreb, the "Troika" has strengthened Dodik's separatism, given that they have left too much room for Dragan Čović to actively support Serbian separatism. The "Troika" leaders have simply strengthened Dodik's separatism by remaining silent about Čović's support for it.

(M.T.)