Stasa Kosarac, Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, was urged to resign after local media published photos of him at a party at local restaurant with businessmen and musicians during the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown, Klix.ba reported on May 5.

Bosnia is implementing tough restrictions to contain the spread of coronavirus and has closed all restaurants, banning all public gatherings.

Despite the ban, Kosarac attended the party, which was revealed when another partygoer, popular Bosnian folk singer Sladjana Mandic, posted photos on Instagram.

Kosarac’s “corona-party” as dubbed by local media provoked outrage in the country. All politicians, including Milorad Dodik, a member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency and leader of the Serb Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), who nominated Kosarac for his post, have commented that his political career is over and that the authorities have to impose sanctions on everyone who participated.

“Kosarac has ended politics as [member of] our party,” Dodik said.

However, he added that his removal from the state-level government would worsen the position of Republika Srpska in that institution.

The country declared a state of disaster in mid-March over the coronavirus outbreak. The number of reported cases reached 1,934 as of May 5.

Meanwhile, the two entities started easing gradually the restrictions that were imposed in March. On May 5, Vjekoslav Mandic, Health Minister of the Muslim-Croat Federation, said the entity will lift the restrictions in three phases. The authorities will wait for 14-15 days after each phase to make sure the situation is under control.