Nikšić and Komšić show that politicians can still reach an agreement

“I will do everything to resolve the situation on Monday or Tuesday, whatever that means”. This statement was made by the leader of the Democratic Front, Željko Komšić, last week regarding the (non)formation of the government in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the same statement, Komšić also stated that what happens at the beginning of next week will determine whether the DF remains in the coalition story or leaves it, reports the Patria news agency. 

The formation of the government in the FBiH has been ongoing for almost four months and has been accompanied by certain problems from the very beginning. The latest, and we hope the last in a series, is the inability to appoint the Vice President of the FBiH from the Serbian people.

During this process, the fact that the SDP is blocking the appointment of Slobodan Šoja, the Democratic Front's candidate for that position, and thus blocking the entire process of establishing the government in the FBiH, was most emphasized. These accusations were responded to on his Facebook profile by the President of the SDP BiH, Nermin Nikšić, who was in Qatar at the time following the BiH handball team at the World Championship, saying that it is possible to form a government in the FBiH without the SDP, and that the SDP will not be a brake on forming the government.

He also stated that the Main Board of the SDP would decide on this issue, and that such a decision could not be made by one man.

After the session of the SDP Main Board (31.01.2015.), Nikšić again spoke via his Facebook profile, stating that the SDP delegates in the House of Peoples of the FBiH would sign the candidacy of the DF candidate for the position of President of the FBiH from the Serbian people, but that it could not be Slobodan Šoja.

After this statement by Nikšić, it was the turn of the Democratic Front and their leader Željko Komšić. Instead of Slobodan Šoja, Milan Dunović was nominated for this position, whose candidacy received the signatures of the SDP delegates in the House of Peoples of the FBiH, but, according to Slaviša Šućur, President of the Club of Serbs in the House of Peoples, it will not receive the support of the SDP delegates in the form of votes.

This situation essentially means that the list of candidates for the President and Vice Presidents of the FBiH will receive support in the House of Representatives, but will not receive support in the House of Peoples of the FBiH. After that, the candidate list will return to the House of Representatives for adoption, where it should be adopted, since the SDA, DF and HDZ have a majority in that house, and the formation of the government in the FBiH will be “unblocked”.

Both Nermin Nikšić and Željko Komšić showed consistency in this situation. Nermin Nikšić remained consistent with his statements that the SDP would not block the process of forming the government, but would not actively participate in its election, while Željko Komšić demonstrated the will to do everything in his power to form the government in the FBiH, agreeing to the SDP's demands that Slobodan Šoja not be a candidate for Vice President of the FBiH, and instead appointed Milan Dunović, concludes the analysis published by Istinomjer.ba.