What is the goal of the propaganda against Slaven Kovačević led by Zagreb's (Serbian) Novosti?!

(Patria) - On the pages of the Independent Serbian Weekly Novosti from Zagreb, a magazine of the alleged Serbian minority in Croatia, an opinion piece recently appeared regarding the Democratic Front's decision to nominate Slaven Kovačević for a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Although the text purports to be journalistic, author Eldin Hadžović ultimately signs a text that resembles something that could be called a joint statement by the President of the Republic of Croatia and the Government of the Republic of Croatia, Zoran Milanović and Andrej Plenković.

Eldin Hadžović, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina on a Zagreb stipend, served as a solid instrument not only for establishing the left-right, or rather Milanović-Plenković consensus on the issue of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also a consensus according to which Croatia is the one that should and must determine the degree of elementary civil rights for people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a consensus according to which the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina depends on obedience to Croatia, since Euro-Atlantic integrations (which allegedly have no alternative) lead through Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The "joint statement by Milanović and Plenković", signed by Hadžović and Novosti, is full of lies and insinuations. Lies and insinuations in this case can be divided into lies of a technical nature and lies (insinuations) of a political nature.

The basic lies of a technical nature include Novosti's claim that Kovačević insisted before Strasbourg that he belonged to the "others".

The only truth is that Kovačević did not insist at all that he belonged to the "others", nor to any constituent people (although he does belong), but rather addressed the Court as a citizen, without any insistence on belonging to the "others" or any of the peoples.

The only ones who insisted all along that Kovačević's ethnic affiliation must be determined were the legal teams of the Republic of Croatia, as well as the legal team of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, thanks to the Trojka, consisted entirely of individuals close to HDZ BiH.

They literally put all their efforts into proving that Slaven Kovačević is a Croat, since the mentioned person addressed the Court only as a citizen, and regarding the violation of his rights as a citizen and not as a member of an ethnic group, ultimately regarding the violation of rights when it comes to the active right to vote.

Another major lie by Novosti concerns the active right to vote.

"Let us remind you, Kovačević - otherwise an advisor to Željko Komšić, the leader and only relevant figure of the DF - appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in 2022, stating that his active right to vote was denied due to a combination of ethnic and territorial criteria in the BiH Constitution. This problem really exists, and the ECtHR had already confirmed it in the now notorious judgments (Sejdić-Finci, Zornić, and Pilav v. Bosnia and Herzegovina), which deal with the discrimination of the so-called 'others' and citizens domiciled in the 'wrong' territory," writes Novosti.

From the above quote, it is not entirely clear whether this is due to ignorance or an intention to lie and deceive the public. However, it is completely untrue that the ECtHR had already confirmed in the judgments (Sejdić-Finci, Zornić, and Pilav v. Bosnia and Herzegovina) the denial of the active right to vote, because none of those appellants complained about the active, but about the passive right to vote (to be elected), while on the other hand, Kovačević addressed the Court with a complaint that he was unable to vote. However, Novosti, clearly with the aim of mystifying and disqualifying Kovačević, equates things that cannot be equated from a legal perspective.

From the above quote, it is evident that Novosti and Hadžović do not care about easily verifiable facts, and it is clear that they are placing themselves in the propaganda service of the Republic of Croatia against one of the completely legitimate policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Against a civic policy that finds its foundation simultaneously in the existing constitutional framework (hence Komšić and Kovačević as constitutional patriots and legalists) but also in the ambition for a democratic and civic superstructure of the existing constitutional framework, which is also legal and legitimate and to which not only judgments but also obligations undertaken from the European integration package point.

The Republic of Croatia, along with its propaganda apparatus and its branches in Bosnia and Herzegovina, wants to completely marginalize and abolish, both formally and legally, the civic component of our Constitution, which would ultimately lead to the complete prevalence of the ethnic component, and ultimately to the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina in line with the demands of official Zagreb and HDZ BiH.

In a political sense, Zagreb has achieved certain successes in previous years, given that the Trojka accepted the reduction of civil rights at the expense of ethnic ones, by accepting the suspension of the BiH Constitution.

However, this acceptance was not only of a legal and procedural nature, but it was and is an acceptance that is political and as such directly reflects on social relations.

Pro-Trojka civic activists (from whose ranks Eldin Hadžović also comes) have accepted that the constitutional structure and the entire social order, beyond acquired rights, will shift even further to the detriment of the civic.

The only political option from the civic political spectrum in Bosnia and Herzegovina that has not accepted the legal and political reduction of the civic in favor of the ethnic and which still uses legal constitutional mechanisms for the fight for the civic is the Democratic Front, i.e., Slaven Kovačević and Željko Komšić.

Precisely because Kovačević and Komšić use legal constitutional mechanisms in the fight for their political idea, it most bothers the propagandists from Novosti, who want to present the use of constitutional mechanisms for the purpose of a legal fight for the state not only as manipulation (lies of a political nature) but also as an inadmissible means of defense. You have no right to defense, that is Zagreb's final word!

We do!

(M.T)