Influx of Migrants Add to Tensions Ahead of Bosnian Elections

Influx of Migrants Add to Tensions Ahead of Bosnian Elections

Relations between the country’s three ethnic minorities flare up as thousands of migrants surge through the Balkans.

Feelings have been running high in Bosnia, as Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik spoke about the existence of a “hidden Sarajevo structure” that is behind a recent surge in migrants.  According to N1 television channel,

quoted by The Irish Times, this is part of a conspiracy of bringing Muslim migrants in Bosnia to “strengthen their position here and then, in some four, five, 10 years say that there is a clear Bosniak, meaning Muslim majority in the country. That’s the idea, that’s what (official) Sarajevo is doing.”

The inflammatory potential of these remarks is exacerbated by the current political climate, which has been tense ahead of national elections on 7 October. Although the date has been set, there is still no agreement about election rules for the upper house of the Bosniak-Croat entity’s parliament, Reuters writes.

The situation resulted from a Bosnian Constitutional Court Ruling in 2016 that members of the upper house should come from main parties that have the support of most members of their ethnicity. While Croat parties have proposed ethnically-based electoral districts allowing people to vote only for representatives for their community, Bosniaks fear that it would lead to a separatist situation similar to that during the 1990s Yugoslav wars.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also expressed concern over the lack of agreement on amendments of election legislation, despite the fact that the election date has been set, Total Croatia News writes. She also spoke about the need of an “urgent election system reform.”

The failure of Bosniaks and Croats to reach agreements on governance can also be seen at the local level, in the city of Mostar in southern Bosnia, Balkan Insight writes. The [Bosniak] Party of Democratic Action and the Croatian Democratic Union have been unable to find a way to reform an electoral law deemed unconstitutional by the Bosnian Constitutional Court, leaving the mayor the only person in charge of the city left without a municipal council.

Additionally, the number of migrants entering Bosnia has increased from 755 in 2017 to around 4,000 this year, overwhelming the country’s 200-bed asylum center, Reuters writes in a different article. As a result, many migrants have turned parks in Sarajevo and other cities into makeshift camps.

Still, Bosnia is in most cases just a stop on the migrants’ path from neighboring EU members Croatia and Slovenia, Croatian daily Jutarnji List writes, cited by B92. The latest wave of migrants is partially due to the closure of a Balkan route through Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia. Zagreb is bracing itself for an additional wave of migrants deported from Austria, which has recently passed legislation sending back asylum claimants who entered the EU via a member where the Dublin III Regulation is in force.

• Sarajevo has been Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s location of choice for a rally in what is expected to be his only European campaign event ahead of Turkey’s snap elections on 24 June.

• Austria, the Netherlands, and Germany – all with sizeable Turkish populations – have banned Turkish parties from campaigning, a reflection of the frosty relations between Western Europe and Turkey. But while many in Europe criticize Erdogan’s heavy-handed suppression of dissent, Bosnian Muslims look to Turkey for both spiritual and economic guidance.

Compiled by Ioana Caloianu

, https://www.tol.org/client/article/27742-bosnia-politics-elections-minorities-migrants-dodik.html

http://asylumireland.ml/influx-of-migrants-add-to-tensions-ahead-of-bosnian-elections/