Exactly seven days before the publication of this text, the leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina – BiH (SDP), the People and Justice (Narod i Pravda), Our Party (Nasa Stranka) and the Independent List of BiH (NBL) signed a coalition agreement for joint participation in local elections in BiH, which are supposed to take place on November 15th this year.
This agreement consisted of 29 points is called the Sarajevo Agreement 2020, and parties of the so-called four will present it in all nine municipalities of Sarajevo Canton (SC) in which – except for Stari Grad municipality – the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) currently has mayors, Fokus news portal reports.
The question is whether Friday, a day associated with Friday, on December 13th last year, when the current four was created by the fission of the former six, was chosen for the formalization of the coalition agreement by chance.
For those who are less informed, it was when the Democratic Front (DF) and the Alliance for a Better Future (SBB) separated from the core of the coalition they formed with the four, overthrew the very popular government of Prime Minister Edin Forto (NS) to the people and international community, and merged with SDA, which resulted in creating a new government led by Mario Nenadic, a non-party candidate on the SBB electoral list.
As is often the case with political coalitions in our country, this one did not prove to be overly stable, so after just over half a year, Nenadic’s government is already missing two ministers. The Minister of Social Policy and the Minister of Health have resigned, therefore during coronavirus pandemic, two ministries which are crucial for crisis management were practically incapacitated.
Problems with the appointment of replacements and constant disputes within the coalition could point to something that is being talked about more and more in Sarajevo – and that is the removal of the current government.
The common topic of political predictions for SC was that the ”four” could expect success in the local elections, which would then lead to the removal of the cantonal government, but as sources close to these parties mention, the removal might be done before the November elections. On the contrary, it can be heard that the conditions have been created for the removal of the government consisting of SDA, DF and SBB, and that the ”four” could try to capitalize before November because the current unpopular government did very poorly in managing the COVID-19 crisis.
This would not be irrational at all – on the contrary. The fact is that SBB criticizes its coalition partners more and more often, and does not do so in a polite way. Also, the fact is that this party often changes its mind, but they probably know better than anyone else in which direction political wind goes, and they know how to use that talent very well.
