Bosnia Undergoes Political Landscape Change
By SETimes
By Bedrana Kaletovic
The latest political crisis in the Federation Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) is strongly impacting not only the politics, but also the economy of the country, as there is the possibility of endangering the country’s more than 400m-euro agreement with the IMF.
In a disagreement over the new state budget, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Social Democratic Party (SDP) withdrew in June from its coalition with the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP).
It joined with its former political opponent, the Party for the Better Future (SBB), turning SDP to an opposition party after serving as the country’s ruling party for 20 years.
”SDA was involved in the forming and achievement of numerous important state agreements, but didn’t support the state budget, since it holds that the planned funds are not as nearly what BiH needs for financing and functioning of its institutions,” Sulejman Tihic, a leading SDA member, told SETimes.
A change in the country’s political landscape, however, will happen without the intervention of the BiH High Council.
“I don’t think that my involvement would help strengthen democracy, in this phase,” Valention Inzko, high representative and EU special representative in BiH, said. “BiH aspires to join the EU and NATO, and has demonstrated that it can manage situations such as the current one, in a way which completely supports the rule or law without foreign intervention.”
After withdrawing from the coalition, all SDA ministers in the cabinet came under SBB leadership. Fahrudin Radoncic, the SBB party leader, became the new BiH defence minister, replacing Sadik Ahmetovic from SDA.
“A hard political crisis is unfolding in FBiH, and the most responsible for it is the SDP leader, Zlatko Lagumdzija, the creator of the political chaos,” Asim Sarajlic, SDA vice president, told SETimes.
Vjekoslav Bevanda, chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers, said all obstructions by the opposition will be short-lived.
’’If anybody wants to use the obstruction tactic, that’s their right. This way we’ll find out who works for the country and who doesn’t,’’ Bevanda told SETimes.
