How did Vukanović become the common enemy of HDZ and SDP?

Written by: Amra Vrabac

Since March 18, an initiative for the appointment of BiH Security Minister Nebojša Vukanović, proposed by five parliamentary clubs in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, has been on Borjana Krišto's desk. These are the clubs of SDP BiH, NIP, Our Party, PDP-SDS, and the Mixed Club.
At that time, the head of the SDP BiH club, Saša Magazinović, stated that Krišto has a prescribed deadline of eight days to propose a new candidate and submit the decision for confirmation to the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly.

"Vukanović has parliamentary support to be appointed. We expect HDZ to show that it understands the seriousness of the moment and to react quickly so that the BiH Council of Ministers is completed and the Ministry of Security gets a minister. The political and security situation in the country does not allow for delays in the process," Magazinović stated.

However, that did not happen. Borjana Krišto completely ignored this proposal and repeatedly stated that she has a coalition agreement before her, according to which this position belongs to SNSD.

And Krišto, amid attacks on the constitutional order carried out by the authorities of the RS entity led by SNSD, submitted a proposal to the parliamentary procedure for the appointment of Goran Selak as Minister of Security. However, after certain information that compromised Selak, he himself withdrew from further procedure.

Since then, Krišto has repeated the same stance: Without a new coalition agreement, she will not initiate the procedure for appointing Nebojša Vukanović as BiH Security Minister.

Despite the fact that the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly recently adopted a conclusion obliging Krišto to initiate the procedure for Vukanović's appointment as soon as possible, she has not done so, even though the BiH Council of Ministers is blocked and decision-making depends solely on the will of Staša Košarac and Srđan Amidžić, SNSD cadres. Thus, the adoption of the Reform Agenda has been blocked for months, causing BiH to lose 400 million KM.

Vukanović is a member of parliament in the National Assembly of the RS, and in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, Nenad Grković comes from his List for Justice and Order. After he began to be mentioned as a candidate for Minister of Security and began to increasingly openly oppose the ruling regime in the RS, two of Vukanović's cars were set on fire within six months. Neither of these arsons has been solved.

And while the parties of the Troika do not dare to oppose HDZ and demand that the position of Minister of Security, currently held by Deputy Ivica Bošnjak (HDZ), be finally filled—thereby obviously playing into the hands of SNSD and strengthening HDZ's position—the SDP has recently turned on Vukanović himself. Vojin Mijatović called on him to be a candidate in the early elections for the President of the RS. Vukanović responded to Mijatović, calling him Dodik's player, and then a statement from the SDP followed, from which a new threat to Vukanović is clearly evident.

Given that the statement came on behalf of the SDP, it means that the entire party, led by Nermin Nikšić, shares the same stance as Vojin Mijatović.

"We warn MP Vukanović to stop before he crosses the line of no return, because no mandate or election cycle is worth a life. We are ready for cooperation, but not for lies and blackmail from anyone," the statement, published on Friday, September 26, reads.

Vukanović has not yet publicly responded to this threat, but he has very clearly understood the SDP's message.

Instead of SDP BiH, or the Troika, which has ten representatives in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, clearly positioning themselves against HDZ, even at the cost of halting all processes—which are already stalled due to blockades by ministers from the RS—and demanding the appointment of Vukanović or someone else as Minister of Security, they have started to undermine the man they themselves proposed for that position. This shows that from the very beginning, there was no sincere intention to appoint Vukanović from any side.

When he invited opposition representatives from the RS to Kupres, Dragan Čović had only one goal. Not to change the government and bring in new partners instead of SNSD, whose leader has been finally convicted, but to show who the real boss of state power is.

Then as now, Čović chooses the time and place for his talks and with whom he will speak. For example, he held separate meetings with the presidents of SDP and NIP, while apparently not meeting with Our Party, considering them an appendage of SDP and NIP.

And when it comes to the opposition from the RS, Čović spoke on September 24 with representatives of SDS, Darko Babalj and Mirko Šarović, even though SDS has two out of five opposition representatives. Without delving into whether Vukanović is the best candidate for Minister of Security, it is evident that many would not want him in that position. Vukanović has never spared Čović in his criticisms, even though he knew it made his own position more difficult.

Čović has long since shifted his interest to the Federation of BiH, so meetings with Nikšić have become somewhat more frequent, and when it comes to state power, Čović is aware of which pieces he is playing with.

The parties of the Troika were not even ready to support the removal of Marinko Čavara from the leadership of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, and in the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, Kemal Ademović endured insults from Dragan Čović, who called his appointment and the outvoting of the Bosniak Club a mistake. However, all this was not enough for Čović to approve the appointment of a new Minister of Security.

Čović's behavior at previous sessions of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly showed that HDZ has one interest, and that is amendments to the Election Law. Therefore, whoever first agrees to support this will be a partner in government, and then the appointment of the Minister of Security will also be resolved.