DF Presidency: Schmidt, EU Delegation, Quint should stop backing down from Dodik

(Patria) - The Presidency of the Democratic Front held a regular session where the current political situation was analyzed, and several conclusions were adopted.

The DF Presidency most strongly condemns the frequent physical violence and attacks on returnees in the RS entity, which are escalating day by day.

"We remind Christian Schmidt that he is not the High Representative only for FBiH, but for the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina," is one of the conclusions.

The Democratic Front fully supports the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in the case of "Kovačević", which demands equal rights for citizens in the election of members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Failure to implement the judgment, according to the amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH, adopted by Christian Schmidt, is a criminal offense," they state.

The adoption of laws by the state authorities that do not meet EU standards, which particularly relates to the amendments to the Law on the HJPC, further undermines the credibility of the judiciary in BiH. This encourages additional legal uncertainty and erodes the integrity of the judiciary. The OSCE, the EU delegation, and other international organizations have also commented that the adopted solutions are bad.

"We call on Johann Sattler, head of the EU Delegation, to explicitly state whether the proposed amendments to the Law on the HJPC, which the authorities at the BiH level are proposing after the adoption of the SNSD amendment, are in line with EU standards or not!?".

We call on the authorities in FBiH to put on the agenda the amendments to the Criminal Code of FBiH, which were submitted to the parliamentary procedure this morning by the Democratic Front MP, Dennis Gratz, and which relate to femicide, unauthorized publication and display of case files, portraits and recordings, sexual violence in war as new criminal offenses, and all other criminal offenses.

"The non-reaction of EUFOR and the mild reaction of High Representative Christian Schmidt will only further fuel the policy of SNSD and their officials to further undermine the security situation in the country from what they call a 'general rehearsal'. Freedom of movement has been violated as one of the fundamental constitutional principles, and therefore we call on the High Representative, the EU Delegation, and the ambassadors of the Quint countries to stop backing down from Dodik and the policy of his elected and appointed officials," stated the DF.

The Democratic Front most strongly condemns the decision on the distribution of money from indirect taxes, according to which the RS budget will receive even more money compared to FBiH, which allows for additional financing of Dodik and his government at the expense of all those who spend money in FBiH as the place of final consumption.

"The fact that the 'Trojka' chose a man for the Director of the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH who was previously the line minister responsible for that administration, and after they publicly stated that if we give the SNSD that position too, we might as well give them everything, speaks for itself about the 'Trojka' trampling on its own principles," concluded the DF.