Red tie, black job: SDP as the gravedigger of social democracy and a service for destructive projects – cannot join the pro-Bosnian bloc!

By: Rasim Belko

If social democracy in Europe is fragile and tormented today, in Bosnia and Herzegovina it has long been dead, only still using machines to simulate life.

And if it is still on life support anywhere, it is in the rhetoric of the SDP, a party that for years adorned itself with anti-fascism, solidarity, and workers' rights, but in practice became a machine for private interests and tender arrangements. Once, the SDP carried the hope of being a corrective to national parties. Today, it is merely their most reliable partner, most often in the role of an elegant signatory of decisions that destroy the state.

Cryptopartizans and Eurocommunists – that's what we could call the current SDP elite. The former are descendants of the partisan mythology, taught slogans but incapable of understanding what it means to fight injustice. The latter are a clientelist layer of people who think social democracy is equivalent to the quality of an official Touareg and a vacation on the Adriatic. They are the image and likeness of today's SDP: workers are their backdrop, and social democracy is decoration.
After the war, the SDP tried to play the role of a civic alternative. The problem was that this alternative never touched reality. The working class had no factories, trade unions had no power, and the people lived day by day. Instead of a workers' party, the SDP became a party of clerks. Instead of preventing privatization robberies, it often participated in them.

From this elitism, the habit of conducting politics in cafes and offices, not in the field, was born. And when it was necessary to stand with the disenfranchised, the SDP chose "compromises." When it was necessary to protect returnees, the SDP chose seats. When it was necessary to preserve the pro-Bosnian bloc, the SDP broke it.

One of the darkest pages of the SDP is the law by which returnees to the RS, Bosniaks and Croats, were systematically left in the lurch. The party that should have been a protector of equality became a service for cementing divisions. And this was not an incident – it is a pattern. Returnees have always been a bargaining chip, collateral in political trade.
The SDP learned to play the role of the "civic option" that allegedly fights for everyone, but in practice protects no one. This has been brought to a grotesque level by the appearance of Vojin Mijatović, a man who declared himself the pro-Bosnian voice in the RS, but is actually the biggest gravedigger of that concept. His slogans about a "civic state" always end in the same place – in Dodik's embrace, because by breaking the pro-Bosnian bloc, he precisely enabled Dodik's power and peace.

Mijatović is a paradigm of today's SDP: media kitsch, a performance without substance. Every day a new "historic" statement, every day a new spectacle – and every day complete emptiness behind it. Returnees are his backdrop, and the SDP's presence in the RS is a placebo. On paper, it looks like an alternative; in reality, it is Dodik's most useful ally.
It is symptomatic that Dodik never seriously attacks Mijatović. Sometimes he mocks him, sometimes he feigns conflict, but he never goes all the way. Because Dodik knows who and what Mijatović serves.

If Mijatović is a caricature of social democracy in the RS, then Nermin Nikšić is a serious danger in the Federation. The SDP president leads the FBiH Government, in which all key projects are practically in the hands of the HDZ. Road construction, energy arrangements, development projects – everything starts and ends in the part of Herzegovina under Čović's control. The SDP boasts of partnership, but in reality, it is a service provider for a policy that is fundamentally a redefined project of Herceg-Bosna.

The partisan cemetery in Mostar best illustrates hypocrisy. A party that swears by anti-fascism turns a blind eye to symbols of the anti-fascist struggle just to avoid offending the HDZ. By doing so, they have shown how much their slogans about partisans are worth – as much as the political interest is worth at a given moment. That is why it is impossible to see "social democrats" fighting to protect those whom the HDZ persecutes in the imaginary space of HB.

The greatest danger is not that the SDP no longer has an ideology. The greatest danger is that it has become a mechanism for realizing others' goals. For three years, in partnership with the HDZ, the SDP has proven that it can be an excellent tool for implementing what was once the policy of Herceg-Bosna.

This is evident in the distribution of resources, in the blockade of development in predominantly Bosniak areas, in the complete silence on issues concerning statehood. Today, the SDP not only offers no alternative – it actively participates in the reproduction of the system that is destroying BiH.

And this is not the first time. The SDP was already a key cog in creating Dodik's power at the state level. Their compromises and concessions enabled the SNSD to become an undisputed force in the RS and a key factor of the RS in Sarajevo. This slowed down all processes, from European integration to internal reforms.

Therefore, the year 2026 carries a special danger. If the SDP remains in power through new agreements, Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue to live under the tutelage of the HDZ and SNSD. And it will be gradually dismantled. The SDP will be a screen, a decoration that plays the role of civic character, while in reality doing everything the national partners demand.

The illusion that the SDP can be part of the pro-Bosnian bloc has long since vanished. They are not partners in preserving the state – they are a risk to its survival. Because betrayal, in their case, is not an incident, but a well-established pattern of behavior.
The SDP ceased to be a social democratic party long ago. Today, it is a conglomerate of cryptopartizans and Eurocommunists, a political caste hiding behind the red color and slogans, living off luxury and compromises.

Their policy is not a fight against injustice, but a trade of interests. Their anti-fascism is not resistance, but decoration. Their role is not to protect the state, but to service those who are dismantling it. Precisely because of this, the SDP is a safety valve for the HDZ and SNSD, an extended arm of the policy that causes BiH to constantly regress.

And therefore, when we talk about social democracy in BiH, we are not talking about a political project. We are talking about a dead body that the SDP has been using for years to simulate life. The machines are still running, the red tie is still shining, the slogans are still being repeated. But social democracy is dead, and the SDP is its gravedigger.

And with such an SDP in the pro-Bosnian bloc, there will be no hope for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For those who don't understand – don't forget – without the SDP, Schmidt's imposed government would not exist!

A coalition with such an SDP is a coalition with all those who have enabled and are leading us to ruin for the past three years!