Hope Instead of Fear and a Future in a Land of Equal Opportunities for All

The year we are seeing off did not bring much good. In the outgoing year, giants like Muhammad Ali, David Bowie, and many others left us. Unfortunately, this was also a year of terrorism worldwide, the migrant crisis, Brexit, xenophobia, populism...

Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. Bosnia and Herzegovina did not play at the Euros in France, and Portugal surprisingly won the title. This was a year of extremes, and we in this country are gasping for air, in political, economic, infrastructural, cultural, and every other sense. This is best confirmed by a frightening fact – the number of citizens who have left Bosnia and Herzegovina to live in the West. Of the "great" Bosniak coalition, only "buttons" remained, as the cult sentence from the movie "Marathonci trče počasni krug" goes. With the current political leaders and policies, there is no chance of breathing freely in 2017.

"No way," as Đuro would say in "Audicija." The political leaders currently leading us are not compatible with the needs of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina because they mostly think of themselves and the narrow circle of people and families around them. That is why we need a new approach in politics, we need a new policy, one that will know how and be able to generate change. The election of independent mayors in the local elections in 2016 is proof that change is possible and that our people want it. Citizens will not live any better or worse in 2017, but public dissatisfaction with the current autistic policy, which is its own purpose and goal, will grow. Fortunately, citizens will express what they think about such a policy in the 2018 elections. And I am sure they will have the opportunity to choose a new policy that will prioritize values that are important to all of them.

In 2016, Obama and Cameron also left the political scene, and Hollande is leaving. Of the big ones, only Angela Merkel remains. In 2017, in political terms, we expect important elections for the President of France, and especially important for relations within the Union itself and what it will look like in the future – it will depend on the general elections in Germany, which will be held in September.

Angela Merkel represents a more humane face of Europe and, unfortunately, because of this, she currently enjoys the lowest popularity among Germans in recent years, both within and outside her party. We are keeping our fingers crossed for Angela, of course, but all of us in Bosnia and Herzegovina must be careful and turn to ourselves. The peoples and citizens of our country must find an internal agreement to live better and to replace fear with hope, divisions with common strength and strengthening, and the story of the past with dreams and joint work for a secure, European future. Because, either we will all work and progress together, or we will challenge each other, stagnate, and perish. I know there is strength and readiness for a new policy and common success, and I am convinced that in the year ahead, we will particularly affirm and promote this in the interest of everyone in our country.

To all good people, I wish health, happiness, and success, and in 2017, especially that our national football team qualifies for the World Cup in Russia, that we recognize the forces and policies that divide us for their selfish interests, and that we together build a new internal agreement and policy that will move BiH forward, make it a land of equal opportunities for all and a rule of law where young people can dream their dreams, start their families, and build a stable, European future.

Senad Šepić, Member of the BiH Parliament and Chairman of the BiH Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe