Ten political parties from both entities of Bosnia & Herzegovina, including the Bosniak Troika and the opposition in Republika Srpska, signed a joint Platform for Peace, Stabilisation, European Future and Economic Progress in Sarajevo on May 9, as announced by the parties. 

The document backs the Bosnian state-level institutions repeatedly defied by Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, as well as committing to Bosnia’s EU future. It represents a major step to oust Dodik’s SNSD from power.

It was signed during Dodik’s visit to Moscow for the Victory Day celebrations, in defiance of a travel ban imposed by a Bosnian state-level court. 

The platform sets out five main priorities: safeguarding peace and stability, accelerating the adoption of EU-related legislation, tackling corruption and organised crime, fostering economic growth, and improving living standards.

Minister of Communications and Transport Edin Forto, who also leads the left-liberal Our Party (NS), described the agreement as potentially historic.

“This is the first major political crisis in Bosnia that is not ethnically driven. We stand behind this initiative with the backing of 500,000 voters,” he said in an interview with N1.

Forto added that the group’s aim is not merely to secure a narrow majority with international support but to build a two-thirds parliamentary majority capable of pushing through deeper reforms.

Bosnian Federation Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić wrote on Facebook, as reposted by the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), that the document "shows the seriousness and determination of the European path and putting the interests of citizens first”. 

Meanwhile SDA vice president Vojin Mijatovic wrote on Facebook on May 10 that the end is near for Dodik, Republika Srpska parliament speaker Nenad Stevandic and Prime Minister Radovan Višković, all of whom are accused of undermining the constitutional order in Bosnia. 

“The atmosphere in which everything revolves around Dodik in Bosnia & Herzegovina has been created for years, he initiated it with his madness, and nationalists on the other side are doing everything to make that madness last as long as possible,” he wrote. 

While the accord got support from a broad spectrum of parties representing different ethnic groups, it was not signed by Bosnia’s main Croat party, HDZ BiH, whose leader has been blocking the removal of the SNSD from power at the state level.

HDZ BiH leader Dragan Covic said he had received the document from the Troika alliance, which comprises three Bosniak parties — the SDP, People and Justice (NiP) and NS — but linked his party’s support to the adoption of key reforms.

“Let’s adopt the Election Law, the Law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), and the Law on the Court of BiH – and we shall have resolved the issues of internal stability and the European path immediately,” Covic said as quoted by N1.

Elmedin Konaković, leader of NiP, publicly appealed to Covic not to block the European path over demands for electoral reform.

As expected, the SNSD reacted negatively to the initiative, signed during Dodik's visit to Moscow, during which he met Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping.

Party spokesperson Radovan Kovacevic accused the Serb opposition of attempting to blame the SNSD for the ongoing constitutional and political crisis, instead of the “illegitimate foreign high representative Christian Schmidt and Bosniak unitarists”.

Writing on social media platform X, he said the initiative was an attack on Republika Srpska’s rights under the Dayton Agreement.

Talks on expanding the platform are expected to continue this week, with opposition parties set to meet representatives of HDZ 1990, the other Croat party in Bosnia.