Conflicting statements by HDZ leaders on SDA-SNSD agreement: Čović digs in, Bevanda hedges

"HDZ BiH does not decide on the coordination mechanism, but the Council of Ministers of BiH and the governments. HDZ BiH will take its stance on this. Of course, our stance is known, and that is respect for the BiH Constitution".

Vjekoslav Bevanda, 01.08.2016. (12:20 PM)

We will have to wait until we officially receive the text of that agreement and see if it differs from the initial version of the Coordination Mechanism, and only after that will the bodies of HDZ BiH decide on this agreement.

Vjekoslav Bevanda, 01.08.2016. (12:50 PM)

The Vice-President of HDZ BiH and the Minister of Finance and Treasury of BiH, Vjekoslav Bevanda, apparently had a turbulent day yesterday. After the President of HDZ BiH condemned the agreement signed by the presidents of SDA and SNSD on Sunday in a statement yesterday morning, Bevanda said that neither his party nor the Council of Ministers would comment on the reached agreement until they read it in its entirety. In addition to his reserved assessment of the agreement, Bevanda also had an overall positive comment regarding the reaching of an agreement on the arrangement with the IMF.

"I am glad that finally those two signatures that were missing – why they were missing, I have no idea – are finally completed. It is completely normal that we lost the opportunity for this to be considered in July, but I hope it will be in September or October at the International Monetary Fund board".

Vjekoslav Bevanda, 01.08.2016.

Čović, however, previously stated for "Klix" that he had already read the agreement and that he completely rejects it, not only because he himself was not "invited to lunch", but also because of the content of the agreement, which he claimed "erases cantons".

"As far as I'm concerned, it's a dead letter on paper. The need for Mr. Dodik and Mr. Izetbegović to sit down and talk has been met, but you cannot do that at the expense of someone else. This agreement certainly cannot pass the Council of Ministers of BiH".

Dragan Čović, 01.08.2016. (11:00 AM)

Just a few hours after Bevanda's statements, the party to which he belongs officially responded. The statement of HDZ BiH fully supported Čović's position, even using identical phrases to condemn the agreement between Dodik and Izetbegović, such as the statement that the agreement is a "dead letter on paper".

"The fact that Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, unlike the participants of this charade, do not only have their own entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, does not mean that any agreements in BiH and related to Bosnia and Herzegovina can and should be made without their legal and legitimate representatives. Attempts to make agreements without Croats at their expense are not well-intentioned towards anyone in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and especially towards Croats, and as such have no chance of resulting in any positive effects. We call on all those who think they are the exclusive owners of Bosnia and Herzegovina to return to reality as soon as possible and to understand and accept as soon as possible that all agreements without Croats are just a dead letter on paper".

Statement of HDZ BiH, 01.08.2016. (3:00 PM)

After these turbulent announcements by the highest officials of HDZ BiH, who, within a span of only 5 hours, managed to express multiple conflicting views on the same topic, Istinomjer can only assess their statements as inconsistent.

(Istinomjer)