The Dance of the Čović-Dodik Tandem: When he supports the unconstitutional referendum in Belgrade, not a word with Wiegmarck

The President of HDZ BiH and member of the BiH Presidency from the Croat people, from the very announcement of the referendum in RS on January 9th, did not hide his support for his friend Milorad Dodik in this endeavor which is contrary to the Constitution of BiH and the decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH. However, the cunning Čović skillfully manipulated the public, choosing the place and time to offer support and when to wisely remain silent, writes the BiH news agency Patria.

Thus, on September 1st, Čović visited Belgrade and held a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, shortly after the representatives of RS who did not receive support from Vučić for the referendum. But Čović did not mind. He then said that nothing would change in BiH on September 26th, alluding that the referendum would be held.

Besides the constitutional order being overthrown, Čović is not interested in that, neither then nor now. Čović reiterated his views in Belgrade on the restructuring of BiH and that a solution must be found for the internal organization. He called the holding of the unconstitutional referendum on January 9th a date "when someone wants to mark the day of the entity in which they live.".

Čović remained silent that it was about the unconstitutional Serb referendum, and forgot that today the smallest number of Croats live in RS among all three constituent peoples and that 200,000 of them were expelled from RS.

Does this mean that Čović only recognizes Herzegovinian Croats, i.e., the territory of the so-called Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosna, which was founded on November 18, 1991, or HR HB whose anniversary of establishment as the legal successor of HZHB was marked on August 28, 2016, in Grude. Although abolished by the Washington Agreement on March 18, 1994, that decision has not been formally respected to this day, and the idea of reviving HZHB has never been extinguished.

As September 25th approached, Čović tried to transparently distance himself from supporting the referendum, stating that everything should be in accordance with the BiH Constitution and that the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH should be implemented.

After the Constitutional Court of BiH held a session on September 17th and made a decision to ban the referendum, Čović said:

"The decisions of the Constitutional Court must be respected, whatever I think of them, or anyone else. Whatever I think about how they were made, not just the decisions of the Constitutional Court, who are we and who am I to comment on the decision of an institution. If it started to be done that way, then we would get anarchy, and we don't need anarchy," Čović said.

Four days before the referendum, Čović said that "holding a referendum on the Day of the Republic is a decision of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska and the most democratic way of expressing the will of a people.".

"What the institutions of BiH have decided must be respected, there is no discussion about that. The referendum will pass and the next day no one will mention this topic anymore. Those who go to the referendum will say what they think about the question that was asked. Who am I or someone else to comment on what a people wants," said Čović.

After BiH received the green light to continue its European path and held a meeting with the EU Special Representative Lars Gunnar Wigemark, Čović abruptly changed his story on September 21st:

"I am not commenting on the referendum or the decisions of the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court is as it is until we change the rules of the game. When we finish the elections, no one will mention the referendum in BiH. I am convinced that at the session of the Presidency, we will redirect all that energy that we have unnecessarily transferred to this area to the European future," said Čović.

The day after the referendum, September 26th, Čović also did not make a statement.