Turčalo: Dodik leads politics, for others politics happens

(Patria) - A constructive conversation. In short, that is how the visit of Bosnian officials to Brussels could be described.

Participants of the second high-level political forum between the European Union and Bosnia and Herzegovina expect our country to continue implementing reforms.

Whether the Union's leaders succeeded in convincing the Bosnian political leadership that the country has no other perspective but the European one, and what this summit brought us new, was analyzed in the Summary.

The guest of the FTV show on this occasion was Sead Turčalo, Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Sarajevo.

“What we heard today is – performative Europhilia. You have a performance in which you say that a consensus has been reached that European integration is the only path for BiH, on the other hand you receive a message from European officials that strong commitment has been shown. You know you are in the same place, that there was no progress. This lack of progress is evidenced by the fact that 40 people, half of whom are not sure what their competencies are when it comes to European integration, were present as the BiH delegation in Brussels,” explained Turčalo.

Due to the complexity of decision-making in our country, the EU gave all political actors a chance to say something, he emphasizes.

“The fact is that only leaders of political parties were invited, such as the president of the RS entity, who is not in any of the bodies we formed – like the Collegium for European Integration. This is an indicator that real decision-making power does not lie with those 40 people but with political leaders, i.e., presidents of political parties. So, essentially nothing new,” Turčalo assessed.

We have moved from a situation where the EU only talked to the Council of Ministers of BiH, and today it talks to 40 people, about whom we ourselves wonder why they were at that meeting, he was categorical.

By inviting Milorad Dodik to the political forum in Brussels, European officials are sending a message that they are ready to accept any political reality on the ground, regardless of whether it paves the way for BiH towards the EU, Turčalo claims.

“The policy of appeasing Dodik is very much present. The one who can create the biggest problem, the one who leads politics in BiH, and that is in this case the president of RS, creates conditions for those to whom politics happens. Those are his political partners and representatives of the international community. Even with a superficial observation of politics, anyone can conclude that in the current coalition, Dodik pulls the strings. Čović actively allows this policy of Dodik's dominance to be conducted, because it is coordinated with the wishes of the HDZ, and at the same time costs the HDZ nothing. With a minimal stake, they get the maximum,” notes Turčalo.

The RS entity conducts the European integration process in such a way that it repeatedly tries to renegotiate power relations within BiH and strives for that negotiation process to be completely entity-centric, says Turčalo.

“RS is trying to take over competencies that absolutely cannot be entity competencies. We see this from the disputed case with FRONTEX, where the entity wants to decide on the issue of external borders,” adds Turčalo.

“You are, in fact, constantly pretending to pursue European integration, while we forget the constant statements that a favorable opportunity for geopolitical realignment is awaited,” he said.

Dodik and his partners in the RS entity are very much awaiting 2024 and the elections for the European Parliament, where the rise of the radical right is expected. He is already part of that circle, emphasizes Turčalo.

“Today I asked myself a question – is the statement of the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Borjana Krišto, based on the need to misinform the public or on ignorance. The statement that a date for negotiations with BiH is expected by the end of the year – a date for negotiations is not even mentioned in the context of Ukraine or Moldova. Then it is necessary to determine what the negotiation framework is, that will be a demanding issue. They deliberately ignore that we will get the date when we resolve the famous 14 criteria,” emphasized Turčalo.

He points out that the main problem in the functioning of the government in BiH is the absence of any kind of common strategy.

“We do not have any coalition government. It always implies some common goal. That goal does not exist, and it is very obvious when we take some practical examples. Essentially, everyone participating in the government manages their own department, then you get anarchy. There is no superior actor, like a strategic vision,” concluded Turčalo.