Notorious lie is that the formation of government is waiting for my return from Qatar

By the principle that a lie repeated many times becomes the truth, the coalition of SDA, DF and HDZ is trying to shift their inability to form a government, following a tried-and-tested recipe with the support of their media, onto the Social Democratic Party of BiH. From the start, this shows how their government will function, that we will have a government that will only deal with others and will blame others for all its failures, wrote Nermin Nikšić, president of the SDP BiH, reports the Patria news agency.

Nikšić's comment is transmitted in full without any corrections.

-Today, SDP BiH and Nermin Nikšić are to blame because we do not accept a subservient relationship and do not want to agree to their dictate. It is a lie that the government cannot be formed because SDP BiH is blocking it, just as it is a lie that everything is waiting because of my absence from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Since they persistently present a lie as their truth, I will not defend myself, but I will present the bare facts.

The truth is that during the term of "our" government, for the first time in history, the football and handball national teams of Bosnia and Herzegovina qualified for the world championship. The truth is that for the first time in four years, I am using annual leave for more than seven consecutive days. The truth is that I am in Qatar, where the World Handball Championship is being held. I am happy to support our national team players. I will always be with them, because whether they lose or win, these guys are the pride of our country.

The truth is, and some have asked this, that my trip and stay in Qatar did not cost our taxpayers a single convertible mark. This is easy to verify, just as it would probably be easy to verify whether that was the case when some leaders of state and entity authorities went to watch and cheer for the national teams of neighboring countries that are dear to them. But few care about that, because it is obviously much more important to slander me for cheering for the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

I want to emphasize once again that the Social Democratic Party of BiH is not a brake or an obstacle in the formation of the government, and it is a notorious lie that the biggest problem in establishing a new government is because my return to BiH is awaited, or because SDP BiH cadres still want to be in the executive authority of the FBiH. We have clearly repeated several times that we accept the election results and call on the election winners to form governments at all levels. SDP BiH has clearly decided that it will be in opposition and that in our parliamentary activities we will support all government projects that we consider to be in the interest of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens.

This by no means means that we will allow anyone from the parliamentary majority to make fools of us. It would be good if the coalition partners, for starters, inform the public about the fact why the government has not yet been formed at the state level, in the Federation of BiH, and in most cantons. Is SDP BiH an obstacle, for example, at the state level, in the Sarajevo or Herzegovina-Neretva Canton? Are the representatives of HDZ BiH, who in March 2011 locked cabinets, took seals, and hid official vehicles, in this new-old coalition? Are the representatives of SDA-DF, who invoked vital national interest and blocked the change of government in the Federation, in this coalition? At that time, they liked to say that SDP BiH was incompetent because it could not change the government. Today, they just need to demonstrate their ability.

SDP BiH is not just Nermin Nikšić, and in our party there are a large number of people who are capable of implementing party body decisions with quality. I repeat once again that the election of a new Vice President of the FBiH does not depend on SDP BiH, because in the Club of Serbs in the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the FBiH, representatives of this people from other parliamentary parties have sufficient capacity to propose and elect a new Vice President of the FBiH themselves. I once again call on the coalition partners to do so. If they will not, do not know how, or cannot, then it is time, as in all civilized and democratic countries, to seek help from those who have the capacity and can help.

No one has officially contacted SDP or me personally yet, and until then, I do not feel called to participate in the process of constituting the government in any way. If such a request comes, it will not be decided only by Nermin Nikšić, but by the Presidency and the Main Board of SDP BiH, whose sessions are scheduled for the 27th and 31st of this month, writes Nikšić.