Youth to protest on Saturday: UK claims no money for additional subsidy payments, Minister Bošnjak suddenly seeks a solution

(Patria) - Several hundred young people who have qualified for subsidies for the purchase of their first property in Sarajevo will go on a protest walk on Saturday after Sarajevo Canton Prime Minister Nihad Uk last week stated that there are no financial resources for additional payments to young people. We remind you that young people have received 4,800 KM each, and the public call had promised up to 12,000 KM per applicant.

In June of this year, the KS Assembly passed a conclusion that additional funds for young people would be found in the budget rebalance so that they would receive an additional 5,200 KM each.

“It will soon be a year since the promise made by the Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton, Nihad Uk, to young people that subsidies for housing solutions would be increased from 10 to 12 thousand KM. Since then, not only has the promise not been fulfilled, but due to the fault of the Government and the Prime Minister, the subsidy has been reduced to 4,816 KM. What hurts the young people on the list of beneficiaries of this subsidy, and we are sure all other young people, more than the reduced subsidy is the ignorant and arrogant attitude of Prime Minister Uk, but also the entire KS Government towards young people. The only thing we have heard from Prime Minister Uk in the past year is the constant repetition that 'there is no money'. On the other hand, we remind the public of the statement by the former Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton, and current Minister in the Council of Ministers and president of Our Party, Edin Forto, in which he said that 'there is money, if it is not stolen'.

It is up to the public to connect these two statements, especially in this pre-election period. Precisely under that slogan, 'Hyper-privileged caste' (as they also called us, probably thinking that insults could hide their inaction and incompetence) will hold a protest walk from Sebilj to the Square of Children of Sarajevo, on Saturday, September 21st, starting at 12 PM. With the protest walk, we want to remind the KS Government, and especially Prime Minister Uk, and of course all citizens of this canton, that we are still not giving up on our demands, and that we are asking for the conclusion of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly which obliges the KS Government to find funds for the payment of the remaining subsidy up to 10,000 KM. We invite all citizens of Sarajevo Canton to join us in the protest walk, and to jointly tell the decision-makers in Sarajevo Canton that 'there is money if it is not stolen', they stated in a social media post.

And while Uk claimed there was no money, his party colleague and relevant minister Bojan Bošnjak confirmed to the media yesterday that the Ministry of Communal Economy KS has requested other ministries to provide information on funds they will not spend in 2024, so that a proposal for the redistribution of financial resources can be submitted to the KS Government.