Croatian Democratic Union

The deadline agreed between the leaders of thre three main parties in Bosnia on forming a state-level government - the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, and the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD - expired on Thursday.

"These are individuals, perhaps organised, but they are not the fruit of some climate in society, they are deviations that need to be dealt with based on individual responsibility," Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Wednesday.

Plenkovic added that the government "won't be sucked into a spiral of hate".

Bosniak Sefik Dzaferovic (R) and Croat Zeljko Komsic (2-R), members of the presidency. EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

The presidency - comprising a Bosniak, Serb and Croat - was unable to agree the agenda for Tuesday's session and so postponed the meeting and a decision on appointing a prime minister, or the chair of the Council of Ministers.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has threatened to torpedo a number of major achieved reforms in the country, including the formation of joint armed forces and a state court and police agency, unless a state-level government is formed soon.

This situation is even more remarkable given even a cursory glance at global aluminum prices. While aluminum prices have not fully recovered from their peak just before the 2008 financial crisis, they have returned to their price point in the early 2000s - which is higher than what the metal was trading for during most of the 1980s and 1990s.

As a result of his involvement, Croatia tried to pass a law that tried to protect former Yugoslav secret service agents from extradition to Germany to stand trial. As in many other things, he was unsuccessful.

Representatives of former wartime prisoners in the southern town of Stolac said that the anniversary march on Thursday organised by Bosnia and Herzegovina's main Croat party, the Croatian Democratic Union, sent a "dangerous message".

Ivan Pernar, an MP in Croatia for the populist anti-establishment Living Wall party on Thursday said the was leaving together with another MP, Branimir Bunjac. He has said he intends to start a new party.

Contradictory Messages

The HDZ and its sister party in Bosnia and Herzegovina have long advocated ethnically 'federalising' Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is in line with the HDZ's embrace of convicted war criminals who took part in a joint effort to carve up the country with Bosnian Serb separatists during the 1992-95 war.