After the fall of the Tuzla Canton Government: Former minister Fahrudin Skopljak is the new head of Safet Softić's cabinet

TUZLA, SARAJEVO (Patria) - Fahrudin Skopljak is the former Minister for Veterans' Affairs in the dismissed Tuzla Canton Government, and he refused to accept a position in the new government. However, he did not wait long for a new job, as Skopljak has been appointed head of the cabinet of Safet Softić, Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament.

Skopljak is a member of the Party of Democratic Action, and as he stated after the fall of the Tuzla Canton Government, he did not want to participate in the downfall of his own party and be the private minister of Mirsad Kukić, the dismissed president of the KO SDA Tuzla. After his dismissal and the introduction of trusteeship, Kukić initiated the dismissal of Prime Minister Bego Gutić and his government.

- I have been a member of SDA since its founding and I will be buried with it, God willing; there is no position or chair for which I would betray that idea. If I had accepted the immoral offer, the media would be writing today that I was expelled from SDA for some position and petty gain, and I would not be able to look my friends, my family, my mother in the eye – said Skopljak, adding that the dismissal of Gutić and the Government was Kukić's revenge.

Safet Softić, a member of the SDA Presidency, said that it was time "to tell the local strongmen enough is enough and that they cannot do such things in the name of SDA." Therefore, Softić rewarded Skopljak for his loyalty to SDA, but also himself, because Softić is a great opponent of Kukić and has been warning the party leadership for years about Kukić's autocracy in the Tuzla Canton.

He added that Kukić had created an entire network of private directors, mayors, deputies, and other officials over the years, and it will take some time to dismantle it.

- You cannot allow someone to capture an entire city, and now perhaps a canton, and to do it in the name of SDA. It is time to put an end to this. The Party President, aware of all the consequences as well as the responsibility, has put an end to this, and we have almost unanimously supported him in this – Softić told Slobodna Bosna.

As announced by SDA, Kukić will very soon be expelled from both the Presidency and the party itself.