Youth Defrauded by KS Government Protest for the Fourth Time: Call on Citizens to Join Them on Saturday

(Patria) - An informal group of young people who were successful in the tender for housing subsidies for youth in the Sarajevo Canton have announced new protests for Saturday, September 28. They issued a public statement, sending their analysis on the topic to the media.

As they state, these will be their fourth protests in their fight for equal status in society and the payment of an additional 5,200 KM subsidy for the purchase of their first property. The protest march will take place on Saturday, September 28, 2024, at 12 PM from Sebilj to the Children of Sarajevo Square. Why are Edin Forto, Nihad Uk, and Our Party against the youth in Sarajevo Canton? This is the question they pose in their statement.

- From the table prepared above, the data for 2023 is not entirely accurate, as about a hundred young people did not submit additional documentation, so the number of applicants who received a subsidy of 4,816 KM was around 1,000, not 1,142.

The reason for this is that candidates who passed the public call were first unofficially, unprotocolled, and without a seal, notified to submit additional documentation as soon as possible, and later, with an official document, they were told to submit documentation "as soon as possible". The Ministry of Communal Economy, headed by Minister Bojan Bošnjak, has never officially published the official and final number of candidates who passed the public call. There is no official document on the Ministry's official website. We ask the question – what happened to the unpaid money? Where did that money end up?

Another conclusion from the table. The KS budget has increased by 100 percent from 2017 to today, while subsidies for youth have decreased by more than 50 percent.

Two faces of Our Party president Edin Forto

- I support the plans for incentive housing construction and tax relief advocated by Prime Minister Uk, not cash transfers, which do not contribute to the stabilization of real estate prices. Your insinuation that if there is no money for that, it means the government has started stealing, is political. You are not acting as someone who genuinely fights for the support of the entire population, but rather as a political opposition. You have the right to do so. Go ahead. You do not have my support - Edin Forto, president of Our Party and former Prime Minister of KS, recently responded to a comment from our profile Hyperprivileged Caste (a name given to us with the intention of insulting and discrediting us by state representative Mia Karamehić-Abazović from the People and Justice party) on Facebook.

Perhaps the president of Our Party, Edin Forto, has forgotten what he did while he was Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton, and what he was very proud of. It is quite unbelievable that Forto is today a strong opponent of this method of subsidization, while in his term he did the exact opposite.

Does Edin Forto support the injustice done to young people by supporting Uk, his cadre, instead of the entire population that, let's face it, brought him to power?

The data shows that Edin Forto as Prime Minister and Elvir Hadžiahmetović, as former Minister of Spatial Planning, are champions in providing subsidies for the purchase of the first property. In 2021, this duo allocated a record 8.64 million KM for 864 applicants who received 10,000 KM each. The following year, they continued this practice, allocating 5.11 million KM for 511 applicants. Despite this, then-Prime Minister Forto and the Government allocated an additional three million KM for housing construction subsidies.

Therefore, Edin Forto, who is today a strong opponent of subsidizing the purchase of the first property (because he is defending party cadre Nihad Uk), invested 16.75 million KM in young people over two years. Minister Forto, with his views, clearly indicates that he cares more about party cadres than about the people. As for us young people, he says he supports young people, but not us. Is that hypocritical?

And speaking of us young people, in their statements, they say we are acting as political opposition. This is just a phrase they use due to a lack of valid and moral arguments. No political party has ever stood behind us, nor has the opposition or any of their representatives spoken publicly for us or for us. Shifting to the political arena is simply the inability of the ruling party to face their own failure in implementing this public call.

Prime Minister Uk's wife received a subsidy

In order to defend themselves before the citizens, they mention on several occasions that this method of subsidization is not good. It seems to have been good only from 2017-2023. It was also good in 2018 when Prime Minister Uk's wife received a subsidy of 10,000 KM. We believe that the Prime Minister and his wife were happy with the subsidy they received then, but Nihad Uk, as well as the ministers in the Government, are denying that same happiness to more than 1,000 young people today.

Dear citizens.

We are the young people of this canton. The vast majority of us are employed in the private sector. We earn our money hard, and it is even harder for us to decide to stay in a country where we are forced to fight in this way. We did not need this; we have been deceived, manipulated, and misled. Most of us saw this subsidy as a tailwind for paying taxes, furnishing part of an apartment, replacing carpentry, and so on.

Some counted on it, but in the end, they were disappointed and sadly collected the 4,816 KM. We are people who have been contributing to our community and country for years, brave people who, despite all the obstacles, have decided to stay, start families, and repay loans for the next 15, 20, 25 years. We are not political activists; we do not support politics. Even if one percent of the group of 1,000 are such, are we political opposition, political mercenaries? Of course not. And that is exactly what they want to use to silence us. We are only fighting for justice and truth, which the KS Government has denied us. And what is more painful, they have been doing this for a whole year.

Dear citizens of Sarajevo Canton, join us in our noble, genuine, non-political fight against those who have wronged us.

Saturday, September 28, 2024, at 12 PM – Sebilj.

The disenfranchised and manipulated hyperprivileged caste.