Serb entity leader announces coalition with Croat party

Serb entity leader announces coalition with Croat party

Bosnian Presidency member Bakir Izetbegović, who represents Bosniaks, said that the Croats will have to accept the reality that Bosnia will not have a third entity.

Izetbegović, who until recently served as chairman of the Presidency, said that Bosniaks would have to accept the reality that "the RS will not be abolished," while Serbs must accept that "Bosnia-Herzegovina will not be abolished."

"Within these realities we will all, living with the two entities and a strong group of other citizens, have to find some middle-of-the-road solution," Izetbegović told the BHRT broadcaster.

According to him, "Croat representative in the Presidency Dragan Ćović will have to reduce his demands to realistic boundaries and to something that is also acceptable to Bosniaks." That, he explained, is a mechanism that will allow Croats to choose whom they want, "but not with help of a drawn map or a constituency that would lead to segregation of someone."

On the other hand, Dodik, who heads the SNSD party, said there was "no doubt" that his party and Čović's HDZ BiH will make up the authorities on the state level, and added that he will meet with Čović in Mostar to discuss their cooperation in the common institutions.

As he said, the two strongest Serb and Croat parties will afterwards declare a coalition.

Later on Thursday, it was announced that Dodik and Čović agreed that their parties will represent "the basis of the authorities on the Bosnia-Herzegovina level," and will also cooperate on the entity and cantonal level.

Commenting on Izetbegović's statement that he would "rather see opposition parties from the RS at the negotiating table instead of the SNSD," Dodik said earlier that "Izetbegović's leanings are not surprising," and that he believed the Bosniak representative when he said "the SNSD does not suit him."

But, as Dodik noted, the SNSD is the only relevant factor from the RS because it will have power "on the republic level," which will properly affirm the policy of the RS in the common institutions. "Those who won in the election should form the authorities, and the choice of partners with whom it is possible to do the job is not a matter of desire, but of political pragmatism," explained Dodik.

He added that the candidate to put together a new RS government was known, and announced that "a partnership to create authorities on the RS level" would be announced on Friday with presidents of his party's coalition partners, Marko Pavić of the DNS, and Petar Đokić of the SP.