Minority voting by small ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina is detrimental to peace and stability in the country, SPD MP in the Bundestag Josip Juratović said of Bosnian voters imposing political representatives on Croats.

Juratović noted that such mistakes were made by Serbs in Yugoslavia, which led to war in the country and its outbreak, Hina reported.

“It is undeniably detrimental to the peace and stability of a country for one ethnic group to impose its political will on another, instead of offering a compromise to ensure better living conditions for its peoples who, whether they like it or not, only have one country,” Juratović said in an interview with the Mostar-based newspaper Dnevnik gate on Thursday.

It is particularly important in the entity of the Bosnian Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina not to repeat the mistakes made by the Serbs in the former Yugoslavia, said Juratović, a longtime member of the Bundestag, recently re-elected to the head of the German parliamentary group for the Western Balkans.

The German parliamentarian rejected claims that Germany advocated “a civic state in the sense of Bosnian nationalists”, calling for the construction of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state of equal citizens and peoples.

In an interview with the Federation entity’s public broadcaster FTV last week, Juratović also sharply criticized the leaders of the country’s three largest ethnic parties, Milorad Dodik, Dragan Čović and Bakir Izetbegović, accusing them of making their best to maintain the status quo in the country to ensure they stay in power.

Juratović said the three political leaders had instigated conflict and tension, creating the conditions to stay in power in a country plagued by crime, corruption and non-functioning institutions.