Bosnia’s ruling coalition collapses

Bosnia’s ruling coalition collapses
In happier times: Bosniak leaders Bakir Izetbegovic (L) and Fahrudin Radoncic (R) talk to reporters after submitting a joint candidate list ahead of Bosnia's 2016 local elections. / SBB
By Denitsa Koseva in Sofia July 22, 2017

The coalition ruling at state level in Bosnia & Herzegovina and in the Muslim-Croat Federation officially collapsed on July 21, when one of its members – the Bosniak Alliance for Better Future (SBB) — issued a statement announcing that it has ended its cooperation with the other Bosniak party in the coalition, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA).

The official end of the ruling coalition will most likely not have a serious immediate impact on Bosnia’s political life as relations between the parties had been tense for months, stymying policy-making. Internal disagreements have already put Bosnia’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at risk, preventing it from drawing down a tranche of funding in June. 

At state level, the ruling coalition also includes the Serb Savez za Promjene (SZP). Although it has threatened in the past to withdraw its support for SDA leader Bakir Izetbegovic, the Serb party has not yet taken any steps in that direction.

The third member of the coalition at the Federation level – the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ — has also not withdrawn its support for the government.

The collapse of the coalition was no surprise as the leaders of the two Bosniak parties were known to have strong personal disagreements. Initially they put a lot of effort into overcoming them in order to support the governments in the Federation and at state-level. However, conflicts erupted again several months ago.

According to the SBB, which is the second-biggest Bosniak party and joined the coalition at the end of 2015 after another party withdrew, the breakup was caused by Izetbegovic. The SBB accused him of lying to people and being responsible for the trial against SBB leader Fahrudin Radoncic. The party claims the accusations against its leader are fake.

“The coalition of the SBB with Izetbegovic broke because of his lying to everyone,” the SBB said in its statement.

Radoncic was arrested in January 2016 on charges of obstruction of justice in operation Lutka 2 (Doll 2). He was accused of influencing a witness to provide a false testimony in an investigation conducted by Bosnian and Kosovan prosecutors against Naser Kelmendi. Kelmendi, born in Kosovo, has been under investigation in several Balkan countries for years, including on 13 charges in Sarajevo. His trial is still in progress.

Aside from this, Radoncic’s party openly criticised Izetbegovic after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected a highly controversial appeal in March against the court’s 2007 judgment in a genocide case against Serbia. The appeal was filed by Bosnia on the request of Izetbegovic, who is a member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, but it was not supported by the other two presidents.

In its explanation of the appeal’s rejection, ICJ revealed that Sakib Softic – the lawyer who filed it – was no longer a legitimate representative of the Bosnian state. It also revealed that Softic had been told back in May 2016 that he would need a new appointment from the Bosnian presidency if he was to represent the state.

This information had been intentionally hidden by Izetbegovic, who had claimed that Softic was still a legitimate representative of Bosnia, and that therefore an agreement between the three presidents was not needed to file the appeal. According to the ICJ, the lack of agreement between the three members of the presidency, along with Softic’s lack of legitimacy, were the reasons for the appeal’s dismissal.

At the time, Radoncic insisted that Izetbegovic must resign, but the SDA decided to back its leader.

 

News

Dismiss