Zahiragić on HRT: Herzegovina-Bosnia will never be created, neither in the Federation nor in BiH, you need to know what you are threatening with

(Patria) - Vice President of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and delegate in the federal House of Peoples and the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton, Haris Zahiragić, was a guest on HRT's show Otvoreno on Wednesday evening. Although he had an invitation to appear via video link, Zahiragić decided to go to Zagreb and face the other guests directly in the studio. The guests on the show were Frano Matušić, State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (HDZ), Mladen Barać, Secretary General of the Homeland Movement, State Secretary in the Ministry of Demography and Immigration, and Nino Raspudić, a delegate in the Croatian Parliament.

"Let me tell you something here, in the middle of Zagreb and to your face, with the utmost goodwill - Herzegovina-Bosnia will never be created, neither in the Federation nor in BiH. You need to know that. When you threaten, you need to know what you are threatening with. I warn you, BiH and Bosnian-Herzegovinian society is sufficiently traumatized by the '90s that such phenomena, especially when they come from neighboring countries, are not welcome in BiH. I felt the need to tell you that in person," said Zahiragić.

He stated that they need to know that Bosniaks are a well-intentioned people, a good people, but also a proud and dignified people.

"And do not think that with threats, pressures, respecting your position within the EU and NATO, and respecting the fact that we are most called upon to each other, not only as a people but as states, BiH and Croatia, with the longest border, shared history, with good relations, as a rule over the last few hundred years, with a small exception in 1993 and 1994 - it is very ugly when from that position you meddle in the internal affairs of BiH, and it is especially ugly when you threaten. The argumentation you have presented for that simply does not hold," stated Zahiragić.

Zahiragić emphasized that Željko Komšić is a legal and legitimate member of the Presidency of BiH.

"The Constitution of BiH prescribes that members of the Presidency are elected - two in the Federation and one in the entity of Republika Srpska - a Serb in the entity of RS, a Croat and a Bosniak in the entity of the Federation. Who do you think Croats and Bosniaks in the entity of RS vote for? Can they vote for anyone other than a Serb? They cannot. Who do Serbs in the entity of the Federation vote for? Others? Roma? Jews? You propose two ballot boxes and that we 200-300,000 people, as many as there are in the Federation of BiH, who do not define themselves as either Bosniaks or Croats, have no right to vote? That is what you are proposing to us," asked Zahiragić.

He pointed out that the European Court of Human Rights has said that this passive suffrage should not be ethnic.

"And you expect from us that active suffrage be ethnic," he said.

The Dayton Agreement, he says, prescribed that two members are elected in the entity of the Federation, and for the candidate of the HDZ BiH, mostly Serbs voted in the last and the previous elections in the FBiH. He pointed out that for the member of the Presidency from the Bosniak people, many Serbs and Croats also voted.

"In BiH, we have 10 members of the Council of Ministers. The Prime Minister is a Croat from the HDZ and three ministers. And they have only four out of 42 delegates in the House of Representatives. So 10 percent participation in the legislative branch gives them 40 percent participation in the executive. The President of the Federation is a Croat. The presidents of both houses of the Federation parliament, the House of Peoples and the House of Representatives, are currently from the HDZ, Croats, although 80 percent of Bosniaks live there. The Constitution prescribes proportional representation. We have 80 percent Bosniaks in the Federation and 55 percent Bosniaks in BiH. In the government, we participate at the state level only 33 percent and at the Federation level 50 percent," said Zahiragić.