Izetbegović: Konaković is becoming a problem for this country with his meddling and endless lies!

(Patria) - SDA leader Bakir Izetbegović spoke to N1 today about the current political situation, amid a missed opportunity for a new tranche from the Growth Plan and significant funds for BiH citizens. Izetbegović stated that the SDA did not agree to flawed solutions and that everything can be easily verified. He also responded to Elmedin Konaković's accusations, saying that he is "lost in lies" and considers Čović responsible for certain things.

Izetbegović also precisely identified Konaković as a person 'who hasn't even finished high school', and at one point separated the Trojka coalition from him, specifying 'his sins'.

Reactions, but also accusations, continue between the government and the opposition regarding the missed non-refundable 70 million euros from the Growth Plan, from which the citizens of this country would have benefited the most. Is the SDA being blamed?

“Not only would it bring 70 million, these are very important reforms. The Growth Plan brings vital reforms. The problem is that those who fought desperately for power, do not want to fight for power. Some compromises need to be made. First of all, what the US Embassy itself said, one issue is the implementation of Constitutional Court decisions. The next is the entity veto. It was stated in the 14 priorities that the supremacy of the state over entities should be achieved. Now the opposite has happened,” said Izetbegović and added:

“They submitted 267 amendments at once, which cannot be read in a few days, let alone a decision made in a few hours. The plan, the project is such that it is almost entirely focused on the territory of RS, a few on the Croatian territory. 70 percent of VAT is generated in the territory of FBiH”.

“They removed the words 'state' and 'national', lowered the entity level as if it were the state,” he added.

Did the cantons not submit projects?

“These are very verifiable things. The US Embassy pointed them out for the first two. I am pointing them out for the third, they adopted an unconstitutional law from RS and included it in that agenda. We did not interfere in this matter until this moment, when a man from the party asked me to intervene. How can he present such a large document to me in a few minutes? I did get involved, as did the SDA collegium, and we did help. I told Kojović not to agree to it, not to be in power. Why involve the opposition? To share responsibility with them for harmful solutions,” Izetbegović points out.

He says that the people who negotiated on behalf of the SDA drew his attention to it.

“They asked us for such a document, where the Constitutional Court and its filling are excluded, where the entity veto is retained, where 267 concessions were made in one day... Why should we accept that? They asked for that matter and a 160-page text in English in a few hours.

The people who negotiated on behalf of the SDA drew our attention, we gave our support to fix it. They said they agreed only that certain things must be fixed. After all, let them not ask the opposition, let them be the government,” said Izetbegović.

“I repeat, we did not agree to flawed solutions. We cannot do that to the Constitutional Court, we cannot retain the entity level. We cannot agree to the dictates of Dodik's side, 267 requests in one day. We supported everything before that, we did not politicize it at all. They twisted everything in one day. Do not try to burden the SDA with something that is not theirs,” he added.

Izetbegović stated that what he is saying can be easily verified.

“One should look at the material. Whether what I am saying is true or not, it can be verified. People who are experts can verify what they have accepted in one day,” he said, and regarding his conversation with Peđa Kojović, he emphasizes:

“I said it's time for them to realize that we must form a strong pro-Bosnian bloc to prevent us from being squeezed into one third. I won't talk further about any conversation with Kojović, it's not going anywhere. I only said that we must form a strong pro-Bosnian bloc, that we don't have these two-thirds pliers. That's something I talked to him about”.

SNSD is the one that blocked the processes, Izetbegović points out.

“Until the last day it was SNSD, Krišto even wrote a response that the agenda could not be accepted due to the Serbian side. Then they turned everything around and yielded to all conditions in 160 pages. We said yes, but that we will not agree to unconstitutional things.

The US Embassy located the blame with SNSD, then they said that the SDA was playing games with its demands. My counter-question is, would the US Embassy accept this? Trojka is the child of foreigners. They changed the Constitution, they raped the Constitution. They created an alternative, and now they are becoming aware of what kind of alternative they have created. I wonder if the US Embassy would really agree to us accepting all of this?”

Izetbegović points out that the SDA was in power with parties that were known before for a long time, and they did not allow them anything.

“SDA was in power for a very long time with all of them, and we spent the entire mandate in difficult struggles, we did not allow SNSD and HDZ anything. We changed the Central Election Commission. That is our approach, to fight, not to yield, and not to surrender. Trojka engaged in everything to buy those positions, they sold the interests of the state. If we were in power, we would have taken the same stance as now. We would never have accepted compromises that are detrimental to the Constitutional Court.”

Dodik says the problems come from SDA?

“Of course, Dodik does not like SDA. He says, in a moment of honesty, 'this invalid structure will not stop us when the mighty SDA could not stop us'. He had a bluff to scare Trojka and he succeeded,” he said and added:

“We overturned seven laws for Dodik that were an attack on the state. 7:0 for SDA against Dodik. The fourth delegate was a mistake, it happens sometimes, God knows. Trojka should not have repeated it”.

He also said that one does not have to behave “the way Čović wants”.

“Trojka promised and gave everything to take power. Why would something have to be the way Čović wants? It doesn't have to. It won't be. Čović said there would be no elections, then no new government, then he was optimistic in March, then in May, then... I said long ago that he has 'plowed' because he angered me by not allowing relations between Croats and Bosniaks to improve. He goes to RS and says protect RS and recognizes a sincere emotion. He recognizes emotion where Croats were expelled? I think he is responsible for this whole situation.”

Will Dodik have Putin's support?

“He will. Putin likes to have his proxy who argues with the US ambassador here. As for Vučić, he is the same player. He has two agendas. He plays his games. Dodik probably sets the rhythm for him, like Karadžić did for Milošević. I think Dodik is pushing this more,” he said.

Regarding the arrival of Serbian army cadets, he said:

“They did it in our most painful months, in July, when the killing of people in multiple locations is commemorated. At that moment, they did those things to us, they shouldn't have. Thank God they gave up or postponed it. They shouldn't play with emotions like that. People have had enough, things can easily get out of control”.

Izetbegović stated that Konaković deceives all the people around him and shifts the blame.

“He is a man who does not have a certificate of completing high school. He said that Silajdžić did not know what he was doing, Lagumdžija, Bećirović, Radončić, SBB, SDA, SDP, SBiH. Those parties did not know what they were doing. Konaković knows. He is becoming a problem for this country with his meddling and endless lies. If that agreement had been implemented, they would not have been able to enter Prijedor. Konaković is 'smarter' than all these people I have listed and all those services? Unbelievable!”

Regarding the situation in FBiH and its operations, Izetbegović says:

“Novalić's government left 800 million in cash to Nikšić's. They spent it all and borrowed another billion. Look at the pace of borrowing. Novalić tried so hard to create a positive balance, and now they are spending it indiscriminately. Of course, they will have a record budget when you borrow a billion. All public companies were in the black when they came, now they are all in the red. Electricity will increase by 20 percent after the elections. EP, which was operating profitably, is losing a million a day. Industrial production has fallen by nine percent, they have done nothing,” he said.