Promises of SDA and SBB: Party agreements increasingly resemble marriage vows!

Agreements between leaders on forming a government bring numerous promises, which they serve to themselves and the people. After the elections, SDA leader Bakir Izetbegović signed program principles for a coalition with the Democratic Front of Željko Komšić. That document differed only in the order of principles from the later agreement signed with the SBB of Fahrudin Radončić. Even the dates are similar. The SDA signed an agreement with the DF on November 19 last year, and with the SBB on October 19 this year.

In the meantime, in July 2015, Izetbegović signed an agreement with Sefer Halilović, which many called a misunderstanding. That agreement stated that political murders and terrorist acts would be resolved, starting with the wife of General Halilović and her brother, the murder of Jozo Leutar, and the bombing of the monument to the late Alija Izetbegović. It turned out that only political goals were behind it, although it involved family ties of the victims and the signatory. None of the actors ever mentioned the investigation of these murders again. 

The agreement between Izetbegović and Radončić, in addition to the general concepts of political stabilization of BiH, territorial integrity, EU and NATO integration, which were also found in the coalition document with Komšić, includes in its content the fight against corruption and crime, reforms, improvement of the business environment, and reduction of public spending.

In March 2015, Radončić said that he could not agree on anything with the SDA.

In July 2015, he said that „he will not support anything that comes from Bakir Izetbegović and the SDA“.

Today, Radončić has a signed coalition agreement with Izetbegović, and it is paradoxically identical to the one Izetbegović made with Komšić. That is why it appears as a kind of SDA dictate to the SBB.

Bakir cannot scare us with reform agendas in a way that a Labor Law is passed without prior analysis. No one will blackmail us into accepting ad hoc improvisations that come, in my opinion, from a very incompetent federal prime minister – Radončić once said.

Already this weekend, the new coalition announced that „the reform of the civil service begins“, thus accepting the Labor Law, and the prime minister became competent overnight. 

Within these unstable statements, Novalić also appeared, saying that the administrative reform would actually increase salaries for civil servants. Now normal economists can ask what the goal of this administrative reform is: Reducing the burden on the heavily taxed economy or redistributing salaries in the administration?        

At one time, Radončić from the opposition spoke about demands towards the SDA: Employment, development, fight against corruption and crime, and uncovering political murders. Political murders have disappeared from this agreement between the SDA and SBB. 

Last year's agreement with the SDA and DF was also signed by the HDZ, while this second one is exclusively Bosniak, with the SDA and SBB. The HDZ leader was a mediator of Bosniak national unity, a kind of registrar and best man. Because party agreements increasingly resemble marriage vows. And we know what happens to vows in marriage. 

Although it is not known who was awarded the marriage, one thing is clear: The new coalition will lack the principles that the signatories forgot when entering into the combination.

After all those accusations and brutal attacks, principles would certainly be disastrous.