Kovačević: The Trojka proved to be bad, we need a new concept of government - Everyone talks about the path to the EU, and everything they do blocks that path!

(Patria) - Slaven Kovačević, candidate for the BiH Presidency, spoke in the Patria Agency podcast with Neven Kovačević, where they discussed current political topics, BiH's European path, the appeal to the Court in Strasbourg, and the assessment of the ruling structures...

When asked if Bosnia and Herzegovina is closer or further from creating a civic state today and if anything has changed after Milorad Dodik left the position of President of Republika Srpska, Kovačević says: “Nothing has fundamentally changed towards the civic concept that I and a large number of people advocate for. But there is a multi-decade continuity of two hegemonic projects towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, coming from the west and east, from Croatia and Serbia, trying to achieve their particular interests, i.e., to achieve their wartime goals in peacetime conditions”.

“In such an atmosphere, it is difficult to articulate the ideas of a civic state because you have two Greater-state projects leaning on BiH, while we in BiH are trying to find a sufficient number of political, academic, and all other forces that can resist the hegemonic projects, and that is the creation of a civic BiH. When you look at how much effort is put in by those who do not want such a concept, primarily ethno-nationalist parties, how much they want to retain the degree of political power that the ethnic concept gives them, then you see how serious an opponent you have on the other side,” Kovačević stated.

He added that the civic concept cannot emerge overnight, nor can it be imposed by legal means by force, because it is a process of building the social consciousness of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina that if we become a civic society, it has nothing to do with ethnic, religious, or cultural identity... It creates a state of equal people.

“What happened to Milorad Dodik is a consequence of his unarticulated actions, where he is a proxy for some Greater-state projects,” Kovačević pointed out.

Regarding the policy of the Trojka and their relationship with HDZ and SNSD, and the damage and negative impact on the fragile foundations on which the concept of a civic Bosnia and Herzegovina could be built, Kovačević says: “The Trojka was brought in by decree due to pressure from the international community to change something and bring in others instead of SDA. That momentum after the change of government carried some new breath of change, but where have we ended up three and a half years later? Everything that was criticized about ethno-nationalists, the Trojka has surpassed and elevated to a higher level. In the end, it turned out that more actors from the Trojka were arrested or under judicial investigation than we had before, so we ask ourselves what we had before”.

“In addition, the Trojka gave so much to HDZ and SNSD without any explanation or basis and created a political imbalance in favor of ethno-nationalists. We have been paying the price for such activities for the last year. I don't have an answer as to why this is so, but look at where we are heading; in the last year of their mandate, they will turn against HDZ and SNSD to save what can be saved, and for three years they gave them everything they could. I don't think that's right; we need to seek a new concept and a new group of parties so that Bosnia and Herzegovina can become a normal democratic state,” Kovačević explained.

He added that we have reached a situation where we cannot adopt European laws because the government is wrongly conceived.

Regarding the process before the European Court of Human Rights and the application he filed, Kovačević says: “I tried to enter the space where the BiH Presidency cannot be elected in such a way that in half of the country, only Bosniaks and Croats can vote, and in the Republika Srpska entity, only for a Serb. By the mere fact that you can vote for different ethnic candidates, the difference in treatment for the same thing is visible, which is classic discrimination. And I challenged the election to the House of Peoples of BiH, which is part of the legislative body. For those who don't know, BiH is the only country formed from the breakup of SFRY that has a bicameral system (lower House of Representatives and upper House of Peoples). This House of Peoples, although it is part of the legislative body, is not subject to elections at all. I requested that we vote for these people or that we act according to the opinion of the Venice Commission from 2005, which stated that the House of Peoples lacks electoral legitimacy and that we transfer the protection of collective rights to the House of Representatives,” Kovačević stated.

He explained that the illegal agents of BiH, Croatia, and High Representative Christian Schmidt did everything to overturn the first-instance verdict that was in his favor.

He congratulated Montenegro on its strong progress on the path to the European Union.

“I hope Montenegro will become the next member of the EU. If Montenegro is at the doorstep of the EU, the assumption is that you have accepted the EU's value system, and there will certainly be those who will oppose it. Looking from BiH's perspective, the situation is more interesting here. Here you have political elites from the ethno-nationalist parties who claim to be advocates of the European Union but do everything to prevent Bosnia and Herzegovina from moving forward. Why? Precisely because of the value system,” says Kovačević.

He adds that ethno-nationalist politicians, no matter how much they verbally claim to want to join the EU, do everything to prevent it.

“Because the EU will bring three elements – democracy, the rule of law, and the protection of individual civil rights. They will not have democracy because it has several principles, one of which is unpredictability – you cannot know who will win the elections until the elections happen. We have an electoral system where you can predict with 90% certainty which political parties will be able to form a government regardless of the number of votes, because their position in the House of Peoples allows them to blackmail and impose themselves to form a government. This is not the real expression of voters' will. Someone with 4 or 5 percent of the votes cannot constantly be in power. The rule of law or equality before the law, they will not have that as long as they have tenders, nepotism, and all similar manifestations of the ethno-nationalist system called the constituent status of peoples. If there were complete rule of law, none of them would be free; BiH would be 'sandaerized'. And finally, the protection of individual civil rights is the opposite concept of what they offer through consociational democracy,” Kovačević stated.

Among other things, Kovačević also stated that the story about the third entity is not a story about the endangerment of Croats.

“The story about the third entity is very simple; someone here wants, and we know who, to establish control over a certain territory in order to control the police and the judicial system. When you control the police and the judicial system, you can rig tenders and do any kind of machinations without anyone bothering you. That's what the third entity would serve, and I hope it will never happen,” Kovačević explained.