The guest of the show '7 plus' on Hayat TV was Fahrudin Radončić, president of the Alliance for a Better Future (Savez za bolju budućnost SBB). In an interesting and dynamic interview, the SBB leader spoke about negotiations on electoral reforms, the situation in the country, political relations, harmonization of Bosniak-Croat relations, Christian Schmidt, High Representative in BiH, security and social situation in the country, but also the attitude of regional states and their leaders towards BiH.
Radončić assessed the negotiations regarding the electoral reform in BiH as extremely important.
- These negotiations were at the level of the April package, that we have been searching for a solution for ten years so that Bosniaks do not elect Croats to the Presidency for the fourth time, that we searched for and reached excellent solutions, we achieved the greatest result thanks to Mr. Izetbegović, without any vanity, who strongly insisted and finally opened that package of unblocking the Federation, unblocking the appointment of judges of the Constitutional Court of the Federation, unblocking the appointment of the President and Vice President of the Federation, unblocking the appointment of the Prime Minister and the entire Government.
And I'm really sorry that we didn't score, and in a way that provided the basis. It is said that we were looking for a basis and that is where great doubts and unnecessary controversies arise. Neither Mr. Izetbegović, nor I, nor others thought that we were signing anything there, nor was it required of us, but to give a basis to our parliamentarians, to give a basis for public debate so that the academic community, professors of constitutional law, media such as Hayat can organize roundtables with experts and they are finally shape that document. I think we did a great job, a lot was done between Neum and Sarajevo, because we did nothing in Neum. And in Sarajevo we made and solved these topics that I said a moment ago, except for the member of the Presidency, whoever continues the negotiations now has one agreed set and in that sense I am not dissatisfied with that, but I am of course dissatisfied that we did nothing because we ruined the result on which we have worked hard for four days - said Radončić, adding that the negotiations were at times difficult and nervous:
- It doesn't matter which side, it is normal when negotiations are underway, but I want to believe that we will try to solve something quickly because Bosnia and Herzegovina in this state cannot last long without even greater turbulence. The House of Representatives at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not working, the Presidency is blocked, the Federation is completely in collapse. The Government of the Federation has not been appointed for three and a half years, Mr. Novalić has been practically the Prime Minister for eight years, four years in the technical mandate, with great chances to be in the technical mandate for another four years, which has never been recorded in the world for someone to be in the technical mandate for eight years Many institutions did not get their leaders in accordance with the law, with full mandates and I think that all participants must be aware that this level of Bosniak-Croat relations, the negotiations aimed at harmonizing Bosniak-Croat relations, harmonizing the situation in the Federation because then it is easier to defend ourselves against the Republika Srpska, we have not achieved that and it must not last too long in the moments of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
On the statement of the journalist, that the electoral way of elections was mentioned as the most probable and most acceptable possibility, following the example of America on the one hand, the president of SBB explained what the problem is with this way of elections in BiH.
- America is a model for a free and democratic world and they elect the president of America in two or three percent of statistical errors. The problem with the implementation of the electoral model in Bosnia and Herzegovina is that it would amount to much more. Whether the vote in Goražde and Sarajevo is worth one in six or seven times, that is, one in six or seven hundred percent or a vote from Posavina and a vote from Sarajevo or Tuzla. In that sense, it was possible to correct and talk about some others, to keep the electoral way, about some other numbers and I think we didn't, when I say I don't mean myself, but some people didn't have enough patience to simulate different situations in order to make solutions in numbers a very complicated matter and it is difficult to imagine for an ordinary person.
Radončić also clarified the theory that most of the proposals went in the direction of formally satisfying the verdicts from Strasbourg, and essentially in the direction of satisfying ethnic interests.
- You have to be legalists. We have dealt with all the verdicts that discriminated against others and I think we have dealt with them well. You can't fall for the story of the civic parties. I would like the most in the world, if this country is one man, one vote, but Serbs and Croats do not accept that. We have an Constitution that is ethnic, we can change it as part of a process that will take a year, five or ten. At this moment, the ethnic prefix has been abolished, we have even succeeded in some new variations, but in life you cannot forbid Serbs and Croats, or even us Bosniaks, to feel that way and make this state what it is in Dayton, and Dayton has the force of a peace conference like the Berlin Congress, that it is a state of three peoples, two entities and now we will add the Others. Wisdom and the future of this country in its safe sense, it will survive, no one can overthrow it, no one can enslave it, but that we have harmonized relations between Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks and that civic option. Not everything is black and white, there are also gray colors. How deeply we will find reconciliation between these two concepts, ethnic and national, I deeply believe, especially when the time comes for civic parties to join talks or negotiations, that this country has that democratic capacity and finds what is in the best interest of every citizen - said Radončić.
The president of SBB also answered what the greatest fear of Croats as a constituent people is.
- We have to look at the situation in a simple way. Bosniaks voted to elect Mr. Komšić as the Croat member of the Presidency. He was legally elected, whether it is legitimate can be debated, someone says yes and no. I think that 51 percent of us Bosniaks, Croats are people who have 17 or 18 percent, they are afraid that we will majorize them. If you elect a member of the Presidency, they are afraid that we will move on. You have Mr. Izetbegović, who rightly says that Croats have too many positions in the Federation.
Excellent, Mr. Bakir, who gave them those positions? SDA did, I didn't give it to them. You have these unprincipled blows. I am not saying that Izetbegović is unprincipled, it is a ping-pong of responsibility who has more or less positions, but the matter and the problem should be viewed strategically, to harmonize Croat-Bosniak relations, so that we as Bosniaks do not feel threatened that too many positions are being taken away from us in relation to the number, and that Croats do not live in fear that, since they are a minority in the Government, the minority is in the Federation House of Representatives, where there are 98 deputies and the Croats cannot get over the number from 18, so that they are not majorized in the House of Peoples. This is their last line of defense, as they say, they do not want, and they transparently told us, to become a national minority, because it depends on their signature whether the Constitution will change. They will never sign to be a national minority. So compromise is the mother of success. We must know what we do not want and we did not want to give in to Mr. Izetbegović, me or others, what we want to accept, and what we still need to discuss - Radončić emphasized.
The journalist also asked about the alleged "guarantees that Dragan Čović asked for".
-I didn't see it that way." He was looking for a model that suits him, of course, which is what politicians do. We cannot give guarantees to anyone, no model in the world can guarantee anyone that 100 percent will be elected as a member of the Presidency. In this model, it could even happen that Croats elect a Croat, one Croat, and we elect Željko Komšić and thus elect another Croat as a member of the Presidency. I think there was basically a fair play story, but of course it requires a lot of analysis and numbers in the electorate to give everyone an equal chance, I think we had two different versions in that sense, which were a good basis for conversation and I think that this will have to be worked out - said the president of SBB and added that it was a great fortune that the mediators were very well-intentioned:
- We are very lucky that Angelina Eichhorst and the Head of the EU Delegation to BiH Johann Sattler, together with the US Ambassador Michael Murphy, were a kind of mediator, that their expert teams presented to us what they learned from our speeches, our conversations, they are phenomenally well-intentioned. I tell you this responsibly, because I am not someone who lives by politics to have something to fear. They did not support anyone, they only supported the citizens of BiH. There was no favoritism, and in that sense I am sure that Bosniaks had to pay attention primarily to what Washington says and what Brussels says. We can be neither Russian nor Turkish influence next to these two which are both civilizationally and security optimally and in that sense I really expect that we will have more to respect the efforts of these people, because here it happened that even some political parties and some the media has made a harangue against the mediator. Whether it was Palmer, whether it was Escobar, whether it was Angelina (Eichhorst), whether it was Sattler, we shouldn't do that. What do Bosniaks need in this situation to make their friends as people who are afraid of dirty media blows and to look at us as people who destroy their credibility. That is not necessary.
To the statement of the host that Milorad Dodik, a member of the Presidency of BiH and the president of the SNSD, is very angry with him, after the hearing in the "Pavlović bank" case, and that he called him out in an ugly way, Radončić said:
- Mr. Dodik asks us Bosniaks to be equally primitive when it comes to polemics with Banja Luka. I am not Bakir Izetbegović who falls for it. He says "Sarajevo is Tehran", Bakir says "you have commited genocide". This brings big points in both constituencies, but the quarrel proves, every quarrel, that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not possible. So you and Mr. Dodik need to do what I do. Mr. Mile, Dodik, whatever you want, you have no problem with Mr. Radončić, nor with "Avaz", you have no problem with journalists, you have a problem with a specific potential indictment.
Here, I will be correct and I will say that the presumption of innocence of everyone must be respected until a final verdict is reached, but you must respect state institutions, the Prosecutor's Office that is hearing you and asking you to explain where you bought this glass of water or building or house in Belgrade. So, there is no controversy, Dodik can strike as much as he wants, he must understand one thing - that his mentor, Mr. Putin and Russia, have been declassified due to economic sanctions. He is more scared because of Putin and what Russia is experiencing when Europe puts its cards and its forces together with the United States, there is the trauma of Mr. Dodik, not in Fahrudin Radončić or in the writings of journalists to whom he shows his middle finger and demonstrates primitivism, which I do not wish to comment on. I wouldn't pay attention to him anymore. You have two options, that he shows in the last seven or eight days he repeats and says "I want Bosnia and Herzegovina, I recognize the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I want that", but even such a Dodik, you know, a wolf changes his hair, but his temper never. He is a politician who has no perspective. I don't think of him personally, it's just his policy that has no perspective.
We need to build Bosnia and Herzegovina, to harmonize relations with Croats, to send Serbs from the opposition a hand that attracts them to Sarajevo as the capital, and most importantly to dedicate ourselves to economic issues. People leave us. While we are arguing, families leave every day, prices jump, they go wild. I do not see serious state programs to counter the economic crisis and inflation. In that sense, Dodik should no longer be taken seriously.
Asked if it was time for Christian Schmidt, the High Representative in BiH, to use more of his powers, Radončić said:
- Mr. Schmidt had a bad, burdensome situation at the beginning, that Russia even denied his legality. Now Russia is excluding itself from the elite world decision-making in international institutions, and we really expect that, and that is what our MP Edita Đapo asked, to exclude Russia from the Peace Implementation Council and the PIC Steering Board, so that the PIC could, and that is 50- even countries, the institution at the same time, could work more efficiently and faster. Here, too, we must ask the question in good faith of Mr. Schmidt, who has proved to be a great friend of BiH, all its citizens, both entities and a very stable political figure and those behind the OHR, whether the Bonn powers are something like this drawn a map behind your back or is it a mechanism to be used. At this moment, when the ruling elites cannot offer anything to BiH, except that they will try to talk again in two and a half years, the space has opened for the OHR and the High Representative to start using their powers to help BiH citizens and to help this country. They were formed because of that, they have been there for so many years.
He also commented on EUFOR forces that have increased their presence in BiH.
- We now have this new element of the whole security situation, although it does not look like that, Russia's aggression against Ukraine. People, who until a month ago feared that there would be a war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, now understand that in such changed circumstances, where Europe is demonstrating its strength for the first time, where the United States is demonstrating its strength in Europe, where EUFOR is stepping up, we should not be afraid of war, but security incidents can happen. The most important thing here is that the citizens simply know - there is no war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, no war in the region, no aggression in the region because all countries in the region are practically surrounded, in the positive sense of the word, and that is our incredible happiness, with NATO countries Czech Republic, I do not know, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro. We are tucked away in a NATO space and in that sense I do not expect any problems for the security and sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
They are a much bigger guarantee than it seems, I know that very well, there are a lot of countries there. It doesn't matter if there are a thousand or two of them, it is better to have more of them, because of the manifestation of one situation, but it is great that they are there and whoever understands geostrategic, military stories has a precise message that we are absolutely protected - said Radončić.
Are certain gatherings, specifically the gathering of Ravnogorci in Višegrad, postponed because of that, the journalist asked?
- Well, I can probably assume, as well as you, that they realized when the off-road vehicles of the international military forces are constantly walking that it is best for the Chetniks to take refuge and return to the underground where they were for more than 40 years - said the SBB leader.
In the end, the question was, how many friends does BiH have in the neighborhood?
- Bosniaks must, I always say that, self-isolation is more dangerous than isolation, they must be interactive. We have to go to Belgrade and Zagreb and talk to Vučić, to fight for Vučić. In what sense? Don't let Vučić, who is otherwise phenomenally informed, don't let him have all the information from Milorad Dodik, let him have it from Bakir Izetbegović, let him have it from Fahrudin Radončić, let him have it from Nermin Nikšić. What are we afraid to talk to our neighbors about? The same thing is with Milanović.
Milanović gave several severe insults to us Bosniaks, but then he reacted brilliantly when he said "Ukraine cannot get candidate status before BiH", and then it cannot get it, I mean Ukraine, if Croatia does not raise its hand, because it is decided there in a way that everyone votes "yes" or it's worth nothing. While preserving our territorial, national, all kinds of identity, we must act as if our neighbors are well-meaning. We must be ready for the second scenario, but you see, Mr. Vučić was the first to send vaccines to BiH, now he has made a public statement that BiH cannot lack wheat, while Serbia has it. He gave us 22 indictments for our Prosecutor's Office of BiH to do that. We should not act on such signals in the way you let go, that was given by Vučić. We should respect that and we should try to harmonize relations with all neighbors. We have no problem with Montenegro, thank God, we have it with Croatia and Serbia, let's solve it because it is in the best interest. I expect that after the elections in Serbia, which are very soon, these things will be harmonized in a much more precise way that is the case now - Radončić concluded.
Watch the complete interview in the video.
