Schmidt's new attack on the constitutional order opens space for new appeals!

(Patria) - The public has been burdened with various information lately about how the High Representative Christian Schmidt will act to resolve the crisis surrounding the formation of the FBiH Government, which he himself created.

Ideas about one, two, or even three decisions, if the matter were not very serious, would be very amusing to the general public. For the same public to have all the interesting information, a few things need to be said.

The first of these relates to a scenario where only Lidija Bradara, in her capacity as President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has the sole right of veto. This would definitely be unconstitutional in relation to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which prescribes the method of appointing the Council of Ministers, as the state government, where none of the members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina have the right to invoke vital interest protection or veto when appointing a candidate for the new composition of the Council of Ministers. As the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina itself clearly mandates the obligation for entity constitutions to be harmonized with the state constitution, this variant would be visibly unconstitutional and would open space for new requests to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for an assessment of constitutionality.

The second, which has been discussed lately, relates to the introduction of the entity House of Peoples of the FBiH into the story of forming the FBiH Government. Again, such a thing would be unconstitutional, because the state Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and we will repeat this once again, with which entity constitutions must be harmonized, does not provide for the involvement of the House of Peoples of BiH in the appointment of the Council of Ministers at all. This would, regardless of whether it was 2/3 or 3/5, be a procedure for protecting vital national interest, for which the High Representative himself, with his bad decisions of October 2nd, so triumphantly stated that he had completely reduced the possibility of using this instrument, and then he himself would strengthen this institute of blockades known as – protection of vital national interest in a subsequent decision.

This would also create space for new requests to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for assessments of the constitutionality of such potential new decisions by the High Representative, which are clearly not in accordance with the state constitution. There is a slight catch here. The High Representative is not an interpreter and protector of the state Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina; that is exclusively the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The third, again, relates to the constitutional principle from Article I/2 of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which states that Bosnia and Herzegovina functions in accordance with the rule of law and in accordance with free and democratic elections. How would the elections be free and democratic if the High Representative, through his decisions, completely bypasses and negates the democratic will of the voters? And visibly manipulating election results in favor of one group of political parties led by HDZ.

This would then be another form of deceiving voters and misleading them.

And finally, the question remains open whether there is a parliamentary majority, and as we see these days, it seems there isn't, which would endure and enable this series of possible unconstitutional decisions by the High Representative, who would thereby multiply this country and its sovereignty by zero. It sounds a bit strange, but the High Representative is gradually leaning towards an attack on the constitutional order of this country. All that is missing is the use of force, for it to become a criminal offense under the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

(M.T.)