President Milanović: Cooperation in creating foreign policy is not Plenković’s duty to me, but to the Constitution
“I am trying to tell all political Serbs and Serbs in politics that the resolution on Srebrenica does not relate to Serbs or Serbhood or Serbia, therefore not one single word mentions Serbs. If it bothers them or if they still consider it trampling, suppressing and traumatizing Serbs, then tomorrow any natural event will bother them. A horrific crime took place in Srebrenica, the court called it genocide, and nothing can change the fact that a group of maniacal killers executed several thousand people, mostly men of all ages, and it will always remain so. I feel it is time to close this topic and to start living normally in Bosnia and Herzegovina because this charade about secession is impossible”, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović commented on Friday in Sveta Nedelja the adoption of the UN resolution on Srebrenica.
Furthermore, President Milanović stated that the Republic of Srpska cannot secede from BiH and, in that context, he said that there is a lot of commotion for no good reason.
The President of the Republic criticized the Government for not even consulting him on the resolution on Srebrenica, even though it is obliged to do so in accordance with the Constitution. “I saw that the Croatian diplomacy, rather the office of the Foreign Ministry in New York – and evidently the office of the HDZ there – co-sponsored this resolution. Those are decisions that in accordance with the Constitution must not be made without the President of the Republic, but Plenković is doing that because there are presently no consequences for him. That is total unconstitutional behaviour, not in the sense of the spirit of the Constitution, but in the sense of syntax, letters, words that are written in the Constitution. As in the case of decisions and policies that Croatia implements and represents through the European Council and various formats of the Council of the European Union”, the President of the Republic noted, adding that the Constitution is crystal clear.
“This is a serious topic for an even more serious discussion and meeting, and I wrote to Plenković about this today, but he probably will not reply”, President Milanović said, adding that he expects the Government to begin conducting foreign policy in accordance with the Constitution “regardless of what happened in the past”. “It’s not the duty of Andrej Plenković and HDZ to me, but to the Constitution in terms of creating and implementing foreign policy. The manner in which Croatia co-sponsored the resolution on Srebrenica, the manner in which Croatia approached it, is unconstitutional. To me, the content of that resolution is indisputable, I would support it, but it was made behind my back and without consultation and discussion”, he remarked.
In replying to the press, President Milanović commented on the possible candidacy of Oleg Butković at the presidential elections. “Whosoever will be the candidate of HDZ will be the extended hand of that party, namely, an individual whose task will be to mitigate the crimes of the HDZ. HDZ’s candidate for president of the Republic of Croatia is an individual whose task will be to put us to sleep, to make sure we don’t ask questions, we don’t think, we don’t complain, for everything to be fine and dandy, to steal or commit petty theft”, President Milanović stated.