WHAT'S COOKING IN THE HDZ KITCHEN: Bevanda's two paths on Dragan Čović's orders

(Patria) - Warnings came from Washington, London, Brussels. Ambassadors in Bosnia and Herzegovina wrote. High Representative Christian Schmidt warned. But, Dragan Čović and his trusted man and Minister of Finance and Treasury Vjekoslav Bevanda did not pay attention. They boldly questioned the holding of the General Elections in 2022 by blocking the adoption of the budget and allocating less in it than the Central Election Commission requested. 

Then Schmidt ruled with a decision based on his Bonn powers. He resolved the issue of financing the elections, both the October ones and all future ones. Because, it was clearly clear to him that after Bevanda, another Bevanda could come and block things forever. 

However, about half a year later, a new Bevanda indeed appeared. The very same Vjekoslav Bevanda who blocked the budget on Čović's orders is now insisting that the budget be put in order as soon as possible. For this reason, today, with the votes of his colleagues in the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he blocked the session. Allegedly, they did not approve the agenda because the Draft Budget of BiH institutions and international obligations of BiH for 2023 was not included in it. 

Bevanda says he has obligations for which this extremely important document needs to be adopted as soon as possible. There were obligations then too, when he was blocking, but political amnesia has long been characteristic of the Croatian Democratic Union cadres. 

So today we have Bevanda against Bevanda. And there should be no doubt that Dragan Čović is behind it all. Whether a mutual promise about the final reform of the Election Law according to the HDZ model has melted the guardian of the treasury and his boss, we do not know, but it is certain that everything Bevanda is saying today is what he was desperately fighting against in May. 

It is hard to believe that either Čović or Bevanda care about the state and its functioning, and even harder to believe that this is their reason for insisting on the 'urgent' adoption of the budget. 

Bevanda today wants processes to be unblocked and the state to function. The past policies of the HDZ, Čović, and Bevanda are a sufficient basis for claiming that this is a new game, which by its nature will soon be revealed. But one thing is certain, there are two paths from Bevanda, both on Čović's map. One blocks, the other unblocks. As they say, like some kind of split political personality.