ZAGREB, Sept 14, 2020 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said during a visit to Mostar, south Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday that Croatia is the advocate of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croats’ rights and that he expected the Dayton Peace Accords would be respected and that Croats would no longer be outvoted.
“As before, we will strongly support Bosnia and Herzegovina, develop cooperation with all three constituent peoples, with all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and be the country that supports Bosnia and Herzegovina on its way to the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation,” Plenkovic told a press conference following a meeting with Dragan Covic, the leader of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH).
Plenkovic had arrived for the inauguration of Petar Palic as the new Bishop of Mostar-Duvno.
Asked about announcements by leading Bosniak officials that they would outvote Croats in the 2022 elections and impose lower-level officials as well, and not only the member of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Presidency, Zeljko Komsic, Plenkovic said that it was important to respect the Dayton/Paris Peace Agreement.
He said he expected that the leading Bosnian Croat party, the HDZ BiH, and the leading Bosniak party, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), would reach an agreement on amendments to the Elections Act to put an end to the practice of outvoting Croats.
HDZ BiH leader Covic said that he had earlier warned SDA leader Bakir)Izetbegovic that the imposition of political representatives had caused problems in the past.
Commenting on the situation in South-East Europe after the election in Montenegro and the talks between Serbia and Kosovo, Plenkovic underscored that Croatia was committed to stability in all neighboring countries.
“What is important to Croatia is that there is stability, that there is peace and that tension is reduced, and that trade flows are stabilized. In all this, we take into account the Croatian minority and Croats in Serbia. We are sorry that due to division between the two Croatian parties the electoral threshold in Montenegro was not passed to obtain a seat in the parliament, a representative of the Croatian ethnic minority,” Plenkovic said.
After talking with the HDZ BiH leader, Plenkovic met with Ratko Peric, the outgoing Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, and his successor, Petar Palic.
A diocesan cultural center opened in Mostar on Sunday, the construction of which was also financed by the Croatian government.
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