The President of SDA, Bakir Izetbegovic, stated that the party Presidency has not yet made a decision on the SDA candidate for a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from the Bosniak people, but expressed confidence that the party will choose “the best candidate who can stand up to the current political dozen.”
“Let us leave a little time for the picture to become clearer. A very mature and experienced body, the SDA Presidency, will make that decision. The last elections showed that you can defeat 11 parties in elections for assemblies and parliaments, but it is significantly harder when they all unite against a single candidate,” Izetbegovic said after the session of the SDA Presidency.
He assessed that over the past year, the decline in the popularity of the Coalition of the Three has continued, while the SDA, according to him, has recorded growth in support.
“I think that we have now caught up, that is, that the SDA is currently stronger than all of them together,” he said.
Izetbegovic also added that Semir Efendic could be an SDA candidate if he decides to return to the party.
Commenting on Dzevad Mahmutovic’s decision to abstain in the Council of Peoples of Republika Srpska (RS), due to which Bosniaks did not invoke the vital national interest regarding the election of the RS Government, Izetbegovic said that Mahmutovic acted in a professorial manner in relation to policies that are improper.
Izetbegovic said that the marking of January 9th as the Day of RS, as well as Milorad Dodik remaining in the position of SNSD president despite a court verdict, are the most blatant examples of disrespect for the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH, that is, the Court of BiH.
“We call on the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, the Court of BiH, and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) to react, ensure protection of the Constitution and the rule of law, and initiate the removal of personnel in the judiciary who obstruct this. Persistent retreat in the face of Dodik will turn them into his accomplices,” Izetbegovic said after the session of the SDA Presidency at which, as he says, ten conclusions were adopted.
He called on the Peace Implementation Council and the Office of the High Representative to fulfill their mandate, because their silence and calculations encourage anti-state policies that threaten stability.
Izetbegovic stressed that the SDA Presidency notes that the ruling coalition at the state level – the Coalition of the Three, SNSD and HDZ – in the process of defining the content of the Reform Agenda, as a comprehensive planning and reform document of our country on its European Union (EU) path, “has displayed a worrying level of immaturity and incompetence.”
“The Reform Agenda contains a series of activities in reform areas whose deadlines have been set completely unrealistically, so that we already have around 40 activities whose deadline was December 2025 and which have not been met. We particularly highlight the assumed obligation to adopt laws in the field of electricity, gas, climate legislation, settlement of the debts of entity broadcasters to BHRT, and the establishment of a sustainable system for fee collection. In order for BiH not to be left without funds from the Growth Plan again, we call on the Council of Ministers of BiH to, without delay, initiate the procedure for concluding the Instrument Agreement and the Loan Agreement, appoint the Instrument Coordinator for reforms and growth, and establish a functional coordination model that will ensure efficient financial management of the Instrument, monitoring of the implementation of reform measures, alignment with the European integration process, and regular communication and reporting to the European Commission as prescribed by the Instrument for reforms and growth,” he said.
After the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (PABiH) adopted the SDA’s proposal of amendments to the Election Law enabling the secure application of modern technologies for the General Elections this year, Izetbegovic says that he demands that the House of Peoples of the PABiH adopt this law without delay so that it can enter into force.
“Political parties that are against it will clearly show that they are against fair and honest elections. If obstructions continue, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) would have to react and complete the transparency process that was started with the pilot project,” he said.
Izetbegovic recalled that the application of the Amendments to the Law on Salaries and Allowances in the Institutions of BiH has begun, by which the salaries of officials in the institutions of BiH have been kept at the 2024 level, and there is no possibility of increasing them.
“The draft law was proposed by the SDA caucus. Once again, we call on the Coalition of the Three and its partners in the ruling coalition to adopt a similar law at the level of the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and prevent the enormous increase in salaries for officials in this BiH entity,” he added.
He also warned that the Draft Budget of the FBiH for 2026, which envisages a deficit of 1.2 billion BAM and new borrowing of 2.3 billion BAM, represents a serious threat to fiscal stability and the long-term sustainability of public finances in the FBiH.
“Particularly worrying is the fact that real, available budget revenues amount to just over two billion BAM, while the FBiH plans to borrow an identical amount, thereby establishing an extremely risky model of financing current consumption through long-term borrowing.
The SDA Presidency assesses that such a budget concept deepens fiscal instability in the FBiH and directly endangers the security and continuity of pension payments, disability benefits, and other legally guaranteed social benefits,” he emphasized.
Izetbegovic believes that “the authorities in the FBiH are using their mandate for personal enrichment and arrogant squandering of public money.”
“While they boast that they have increased pensions by around 100 BAM, the prime minister and ministers have increased their own salaries on three occasions by around 1.500 BAM. They use millions of marks to procure luxury cars, equip offices, and for representation, and are unwilling to give up the unearned ‘white bread’,” he emphasized.
He also referred to the “Spengavanje” affair, as well as information about the operations of companies linked to the closest relatives of the Prime Minister of the FBiH, Nermin Niksic, and the former SDP director of Elektroprivreda BiH, Elvedin Grabovica, adding that these reveal the abuse of public functions and political positions for settling scores with political competition, and for personal corrupt enrichment of representatives of the authorities and persons close to them.
“The operations of companies directly connected to representatives of the authorities must not remain without an institutional response and must be the subject of an urgent and thorough investigation by the competent institutions. The intention of the imposed Coalition of the Three government to have BH Telecom, through its management, take on debt of 745 million BAM by mortgaging assets, in order to realize the dubious purchase of the private company Telemach, must also be the subject of an urgent investigation. The public must know why BH Telecom decided at all to purchase a private company, what exactly it is buying, and why a loan of 745 million is being taken to buy a company that has an annual profit of barely 20 million BAM. All of the above raises justified suspicions that this is high-level corruption,” he said.
He welcomed the interest of the United States (U.S.) in the construction of the Southern Gas Interconnection, as well as interest in investing in other sectors.
“The realization of these projects would bring benefits to BiH in energy, economic, and security terms. We expect that, in the mutual interest, the construction of the Southern Gas Interconnection will be accelerated to the maximum, because Sarajevo faces an ecological catastrophe when the supply of Russian gas is discontinued in 2028,” he said.
He condemned pressure by the “imposed authorities” on free media and the attempt to shut down the signals of Hayat and OBN on the Moja TV platform through BH Telecom.
“After placing the public broadcaster FTV and a number of other media under control, the authorities are trying to discipline or shut down not only these television stations, but all other media that report on their disastrous moves and affairs. We call on domestic and international professional associations to oppose attempts to stifle media freedoms. We are convinced that such attempts will meet with mass resistance from citizens,” Izetbegovic said.
At the end, he said that the SDA Collegium has been tasked with proposing the composition of the Election Headquarters for the upcoming General Elections, and emphasized that the Election Headquarters will be appointed at a session of the Presidency in March 2026.
