Members of SDP Novi Grad respond to Vojin Mijatović and Nikšić: When it was necessary, we defended the country, and now we defend the SDP!

(Patria) - Members of the Municipal Organization of SDP Novi Grad Sarajevo sent an open letter to Vojin Mijatović, Vice-President of SDP BiH and Minister of Development, Entrepreneurship and Crafts in the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The letter is a reaction to the accusations made by Mijatović and the City Board of Banja Luka against the members of SDP Novi Grad, accusing them of being a radical, ultra-nationalist, dismissed group. We are publishing the response of the members of the Municipal Organization of Novi Grad Sarajevo in full:

"Comrade Vojin,

No pasaran!

Your statements and the statements of those who have your back will not pass without us responding to the orchestrated and well-elaborated and rehearsed series of responses and attacks on the members of the Municipal Organization of SDP Novi Grad Sarajevo who, imagine the audacity, dared to file a Request for initiating disciplinary proceedings against your person before the party bodies, related to your Facebook status which the media symbolically called 'I have to tell you, your leaders and commanders have brutally screwed you over'.

But, let's go in order. First, let us introduce ourselves, because the City Board of SDP Banja Luka, in its statement defending your person, stated, we quote: 'Since this is an uncontrolled and rogue group of individuals hiding behind the Municipal Organization of SDP Novi Grad Sarajevo... we will seek their identification and expulsion from SDP BiH'. The only truth in this sentence is that we are uncontrolled, because this group has been insisting for a year (a whole year) to the highest leadership of the party to respect the Party Statute and to be received (just received) for a conversation by the president Nermin Nikšić or the president of the Cantonal Board of KS Adnan Šteta, and we have not succeeded in this! They don't want to talk to the majority, what can you do.

If we are labeled 'uncontrolled' because we have our own stance and opinion, and we were also the majority in the Municipal Organization of SDP Novi Grad Sarajevo, then we are proud of it. This means it is about that famous group of 27 members of the Municipal Organization who submitted a collective resignation (which was never discussed at the Municipal Organization, so according to the Party Statute we should still be members of the Municipal Organization, but due to someone's arbitrariness, we are no longer, although none of us ever received any written proof that we are not) when they were forbidden, according to the Party Statute and all Regulations, to conduct the already prepared and scheduled Reporting and Election Convention, at which new bodies of this Municipal Organization would be elected in a democratic manner.

At that time, we were threatened (today's illegitimate president of the Municipal Organization) Abel Baltić with criminal charges, people who are academically educated, respected members of this society, who, unlike him, had the courage to stand on electoral lists and win almost 9,000 votes in Canton Sarajevo, thus achieving the best result compared to other Municipal Organizations in KS, people among whom there are members of the Army of RBiH and the MUP of BiH, as well as recipients of the highest war decorations who honorably defended and protected this country when it was most needed. He was supported at the time by the president and Adnan Šteta, perhaps to show us as a plastic example of whom we should look up to when it comes to activism in the party.

We decided then to continue our struggle through legal means and not to bring shame to public, because SDP is our second home, and when you have problems in the house, you solve them behind closed doors. And we did. But we didn't know that we don't even have a Statutory Committee (one should ask the president why we don't have one), so for our Request for interpretation of acts that we received in the form of conclusions, recommendations, etc., from both the Cantonal Board and the president, we could not get a legal interpretation. So, to conclude, we have identified ourselves.

Comrade Vojin Mijatović, you mentioned a lot on your Facebook profile on March 27, 2024, so we want to deny it in this letter. Namely, you wrote 'that it is a precisely designed action coordinated with right-wing media, individuals, groups, right-wing parties, vulnerable categories with the support of right-wing individuals within the ruling parties who are (listen to this) dissatisfied because they did not achieve personal ambitions'.

That's not true! These are members of the same party to which you belong and who are true social democrats and who reacted patriotically to what you wrote in your Facebook status, which the media symbolically called 'I have to tell you, your leaders and commanders have brutally screwed you over'.

Vojin, there are no three sides, and there never were. There were two sides, and there still are: those who fought for this country to survive and those who wanted to dismember and divide it! Period. That is the truth according to the judgments of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, according to those who lived here and experienced the horrors of war, and according to every honest and sincere person and patriot of this country.

Then you suddenly started mentioning in the post of March 27 'imposed government', some 'fragile majority', then you touched upon electricity and price increases, restrictions, dissatisfied miners (who, you are right, are dissatisfied), pensioners, fighters and their dissatisfaction. Then you also touched upon the arson of 2014 and, with a rhetorical question, whether citizens have the right to revolt? You threw a lot of things in there. And you mention all this in the context of 'pushing articles' by right-wing media that favor individuals from ruling parties with patriotic statements, while simultaneously brutally attacking everyone else who is dismantling the legacy of the criminal system – we quote you.

You conclude by stating that 'the ultimate goal is chaos, arson and violent takeover of power, if the price is war, they are ready for that too, just so that a series of ongoing criminal proceedings are not opened'... 'I responsibly claim this is all a precisely designed plan for a violent takeover of power at any cost'. Again, untrue. None of this is true. God forbid there is ever war here again. The only truth is that we only asked the party bodies to initiate disciplinary proceedings and review your Facebook status. Only that.

We must take this opportunity to comment on the statement of the president of the Cantonal Board of KS, Adnan Šteta, who, commenting on this entire situation, says 'that the group presenting itself as part of SDP Novi Grad is not a relevant factor within this party and has been writing against SDP for months', and who further states that 'on someone's orders, they are trying to destabilize everything good, and a lot of good has been done in recent years within SDP'. Quite interesting, but false. We are not acting on anyone's orders.

Our order is membership in SDP and our request to respect the Statute, because SDP is not anyone's private property. Adnan Šteta is aware of the entire situation and events surrounding the Municipal Organization of Novi Grad Sarajevo, and he knows very well how many times we have requested a conversation with him as well, so that he could hear this other side, the side of the majority. Not to mention that as president of the Cantonal Board, he should have and must have (according to the Statute) regularly communicated with the members of the Municipal Organization, visited us, attended our sessions. He should have, but he didn't. Not once did he show up, nor did he ever react to our requests to hold a meeting and clarify the situation. He sided with the 'successful' former director of JU DZKS Abel Baltić, the non-statutory president of the Municipal Organization of SDP Novi Grad Sarajevo. Well done, we respect that. He has made his choice.

And finally, let us tell the members of the City Board of SDP Banja Luka, our party comrades, who reacted with a statement under the symbolic title 'Message to the dismissed, ultra-nationalist wing of SDP BiH', that we are not, as they wrote, 'the ultra-nationalist wing of SDP BiH', 'a radical group that incites hatred', we are not 'an uncontrolled and rogue group of individuals', nor 'puppets'. God forbid, we are none of that. We fight against such forms of behavior in society. And least of all are we 'leaving types'. No, on the contrary, we are the ones arriving – believe us. We are members of the Municipal Organization of SDP Novi Grad Sarajevo who wanted a year ago (then as members of the Municipal Board of SDP Novi Grad Sarajevo), and still want today – that the Statute of our party and the will of the majority be respected, that the Reporting and Election Convention of the Municipal Organization of Novi Grad Sarajevo be conducted according to the prescribed Regulations, in order to elect the president that the majority wants, and not to have him imposed on us non-statutorily as president, Abel Baltić, whom we do not recognize and will never recognize. Nothing more, nothing less. There is no ultra-nationalism in that.

And let us reveal to you at the end that there are more and more of us who think the same way as we do. That's why, comrade Vojin – No pasaran!

P.S.
So that we don't owe an answer to President Nikšić for the Facebook post he dedicated to defending Vojin Mijatović.

"President, we didn't put him on the final rally, you brought him, and we didn't let him speak. Did you forget? And thus increased the result by almost 300 percent".