Bandić: The central problem of the 'trojka' functioning is that there are not enough seats!

Written by: Muamer Bandić

The bickering within the "trojka" parties over the NiP councilors' initiative to dismiss the mayor of Centar Municipality, Srđan Mandić, continues. The political heterogeneity of the parties within this coalition bloc has never been clearer, and it is maintained in political life solely by the personal interests of party leaders.

The political platform they are implementing might exist, but only on paper. In reality, the only activity in which they are agile is the naked fight for seats, and in this, the former SDA trainees are the loudest, most fanatical, and strongest. They do not choose methods for overthrowing and trampling political competition, often resorting to lies, while presenting their anonymous cadres, without any experience in public administration, as saviors and geniuses.

And that the "trojka" is a complete political failure is evident at all levels of government. Bosnia and Herzegovina is euthanized, regardless of the "trojka" leaders lying about progress in EU integrations, the Federation of BiH is almost blocked, and Bosniaks are reduced to political fig leaves for HDZ and SNSD. Even if we ignore the "trojka's" inability to deal with these anti-Bosnian elements and look at their results at the local level, we will see that this interest group has no serious political goals, no principles, nor a vision for the development of any segment of society or the development of institutions at any level of government. Furthermore, their personnel policy is a complete failure, which is now fully exposed at the local level in the municipalities of Stari Grad, Centar, and Novo Sarajevo.

For example, in Centar Municipality, the "trojka" parties jointly proposed and supported the candidate for mayor, Mr. Mandić (NS). In addition to the mayoral position, they have a sufficient number of councilor mandates to implement the projects they presented to the citizens during the election campaign, and the result after three years in power is ZERO. Why this is the case is not for me to say, nor is it my way of operating to spit on people, and everything that needed to be said has already been said by NiP councilors from Centar Municipality, whose mayor, whom they are now dismissing, was considered too brave and too honest by them less than three years ago, Mr. Mandić. Contrary to the stance of NiP councilors, the president of NiP supported Mayor Mandić and is trying to keep this seat-grabbing coalition alive.

What is the discord within the "trojka"?

The central problem of the "trojka's" functioning is that there are not enough seats and budgets for all the hungry mouths. It is evident that ambitions have grown within NiP for many, and they see themselves in mayoral positions, hence the initiatives to dismiss mayors in Stari Grad, Novo Sarajevo, and Centar.

Therefore, what we are witnessing is merely a naked and frenzied struggle for power, i.e., for budgets, without any political principles or concrete political goals from which citizens would benefit. SDP and NS still claim that Mandić is the best mayor ever, although they provide no arguments for such claims. They say the same about Tanović, again without any basis. They have already jointly recited the Fatiha for Ibrahim Hadžibajrić, also their mayor, because they simply no longer need him.

It is clear that the events in Centar Municipality, within this coalition, have opened a struggle to create prerequisites and better positioning in the race for mayoral positions in the local elections next year. Although they govern and manage four municipalities in KS together, it is quite clear that there is a struggle for the budget within the "trojka." For example, in the current constellation of political relations in Centar Municipality, Mandić controls and spends the budget that NiP cadres want to control.

What message is sent to the citizens by these upheavals?

From what NiP is saying today, the clearest message to the citizens is that they have been deceived, because Srđan Mandić is no longer "too honest, too brave, and the best candidate for mayor," moreover, he is no longer even a "gentleman." And despite the fact that NiP councilors themselves say that Mandić is a bad mayor, the party leader says that "recall is not a good solution" and calls on his councilors to "come to their senses," regardless of what damage Mandić will inflict on the citizens for the next year and a half he will spend in the mayoral position.

Therefore, the leader of NiP values the coalition agreement, i.e., his own seat, more, because maintaining the existing coalition keeps him in the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH, not the interests of the citizens of Centar Municipality. In doing so, he completely ignores and considers unimportant the agreement he made with the citizens of Centar Municipality when he asked them to entrust their trust and their vote to "the very brave and very honest Mr. Mandić," as he eloquently titled him during the election campaign.

And while political fires rage everywhere, and the political crisis in BiH has never been more severe, the leader of NiP makes completely contradictory statements, trying with the old, proven "catch the thief" technique to find the culprit in someone else and shift all responsibility for the chaos we are currently living in to others. Thus, in addition to SDA and DF, he also blames SBiH for everything that the "trojka" is not doing. His statement that SBiH did not enter this coalition with all its heart has no basis and corresponds to the factual situation.

I remind those who are known for not deceiving their coalition partners with whom they have signed an agreement, that SBiH, together with the "trojka" parties, drafted and signed the Program of the parliamentary majority in Sarajevo Canton 2023-2026, which contains principles and measures that you did not allow us to implement. During that time, you are the ones who, by so-called "buying crows," caught one of the deputies from SBiH in your web of lies. All the time you were in coalition with us, you were looking for another coalition partner and "lobbying" SBiH deputies. Thus, you did everything you accused the previous "regime" of and against which you loudly announced a fight to the death. You did the same when establishing power at the federal level and proved to be worse deceivers than your predecessors, trampling the Constitution of the FBiH.

Gentlemen "trojkaši," the citizens of Centar, Novo Sarajevo, and Stari Grad do not have all the time in the world for you to play with them, to lie to them about being very brave, very honest, and very capable, and then propose a vote of no confidence against them. You have wasted the gifted trust and three years of our citizens' lives with your lies. You no longer have the right to waste our lives or the lives of our children with your irresponsible and unserious moves. And finally, I would like to awaken all those who, on the recommendation of the very brave, very honest, and very honorable, gave their vote to your incompetent attackers on the budgets with a quote from Abraham Lincoln:

"A bullet can kill one of your enemies, but a ballot is more dangerous than a bullet, because you can kill your child's future."

Muamer Bandić is a deputy of the Party for BiH in the Assembly of Sarajevo Canton