State or Party: Is it time for Čović and Izetbegović to step down as presidents of HDZ BiH and SDA?

By: Amra Varatanović

In just a few days, relations among political leaders on the Bosnian political scene have become so turbulent that BiH faced a complete standstill. International officials did not hide their concern. Relations have particularly deteriorated between the leaders of the coalition parties SDA and HDZ BiH, Bakir Izetbegović and Dragan Čović. What further complicates the situation in this case is that both are members of the BiH Presidency.

There is a danger that the strained relations will also affect the work of the BiH Presidency itself. Because how can party leaders who accuse each other jointly lead the state if there is no trust, which has been the only topic of discussion in recent weeks? We are witnessing harsh rhetoric, messages about the endangerment of one people, territorial division, referendums, and a third entity. This is how party leaders spoke, and two of them are also part of the state leadership.

It is precisely in these cases that all the flaws of holding state and party functions are revealed. Will the state suffer for the sake of party interests? The very building of the BiH Presidency has been misused so many times for inter-party agreements, and no one is held accountable.

The solution could and should be in renouncing party functions during the presidential mandate. There is still time until the 2018 elections. But no one is talking about it. Interestingly, Čović likes many things in neighboring Croatia, but not the fact that presidential and party positions are incompatible.

The President of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, upon assuming her mandate, resigned from her membership in HDZ. According to the Croatian Constitution and Article 96, the President of the Republic cannot perform any other public or professional duty. After the election, the president resigns from membership in a political party.

In BiH, it is the complete opposite. All three members of the BiH Presidency, when they assumed their mandates, also held the positions of party presidents. Since the end of November 2015, Mladen Ivanić is no longer the president of PDP.

The most profit from the unstatesmanlike behavior of Izetbegović and Čović has been made by the President of RS and SNSD, Milorad Dodik. He received money from Izetbegović, secured the position of RS in the Coordination Mechanism, and then stepped aside. When the situation heated up, he promised Čović support for a third entity. Then the media war between the two members of the Presidency began. When it went deep, Izetbegović said he would no longer meet alone with Čović and then invited Fahrudin Radončić, the president of SBB, the third coalition partner, to sit down together. And while waiting for Radončić from vacation, Izetbegović again sent a message to Čović via the media. He will forget the anger. Like that children's thing: Peace, peace, peace, no one is guilty. And the state, well, let it wait a little longer.