ZAGREB, November 12, 2018 - The leader of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) Dragan Čović and Milorad Dodik, leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), confirmed on Monday that their two parties representing Bosnian Croats and Serbs would continue their cooperation and form a coalition once the country's new government was established in line with the result of elections held in early October.
Čović and Dodik led their parties' delegations at talks held in the eastern part of Sarajevo today, after which they told reporters that they had agreed to form a coalition and define joint policies in the next four-year period.
Čović said that he wanted his party's cooperation with the SNSD to be stepped up, identifying as the main task the need to change the election law so that one ethnic group can no longer elect government representatives for another ethnic group.
Even though he lost the elections for the Croat member of the country's collective state presidency, Čović said that he was satisfied because the HDZ BiH had achieved "excellent results", which meant that it could not be left out of talks on the formation of the new government.
He confirmed that his party would launch talks with all Bosniak parties so as to define what kind of majority was possible to establish, since it was still not clear what the ruling coalition in the Croat-Muslim Federation entity would look like, where the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) are vying for government positions.
Dodik commended Čović for his "constructive approach" to their cooperation in past years, not hiding his satisfaction that the cooperation would continue. He added that the two parties would offer one another proportionate participation in entity governments.
Dodik said that the purpose of the agreed joint policies was to make Bosnia and Herzegovina a candidate for EU membership as soon as possible, strengthen the country's sovereignty by closing down the Office of the High Representative and removing foreign judges from the Constitutional Court, and adopt a new election law that would eliminate the possibility of abuse, which, he said, had occurred in the past.
Dodik said that the process of forming the government would start in the Serb entity next week and that he expected it to be completed by early December. He also confirmed that his SNSD party was interested in participating in the government of the Federation entity if possible, through partnership with the HDZ BiH. He said that the cooperation between the HDZ BiH and the SNSD would not be to the detriment of Bosniaks, whose decision on possible coalitions is still expected.
Dodik added that the most responsibility for the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina now rested with the Bosniak political elite, who, he said, had to take care of the interests of other ethnic groups more so as to prevent the mistakes made in the former Yugoslavia.
The HDZ BiH and its coalition partners won 5 seats in the 42-seat House of Representatives of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the SNSD won six seats.
Meanwhile, Dodik has managed to cause a rift in opposition parties in the Serb entity, practically stealing one deputy from the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), which won four seats in the state parliament.
Some SDS MPs have decided to enter a coalition with Dodik at the entity level as well, so the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) remains the only real opposition in the Serb entity, with its honorary president and outgoing State Presidency member Mladen Ivanić confirming on Monday that the party would stay in the opposition.
For more on Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, click here.
