Pensioners, take to the streets: Nikšić buys Dodik's satisfaction with your money!

By: Rasim Belko

In the Federation of BiH, no serious person today questions whether Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić is politically loyal to those who work against the interests of BiH and the Federation of BiH entity. Because everything he has been doing for months indicates that the citizens of the Federation are not a priority, not a goal, not an obligation. They are merely collateral in the political bargains of the Trojka, in which Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović are the only interlocutors who truly gain something.

The issue of 120 million KM in the budget of RS instead of in the Federation, a question that the Prime Minister should have raised, not expert Zijad Krnjić, has exposed Nikšić completely. Instead of taking matters into his own hands, listening to people like Zijad Krnjić who have both knowledge and integrity, Nikšić chose the worst possible path: to distance himself from institutional rules and truth in order to protect the political needs of SNSD. In doing so, he literally did Dodik's job better than any SNSD minister.

But this is not an incident; it is a pattern.

Because this is not the first episode of political self-humiliation. We should not forget how his mandate began. The SDP trumpeted that they would take over the Indirect Taxation Authority (UIO), that they would finally stop the years of manipulation and introduce order. They said it confidently, as if the system would open up to them, because "a new government is coming." And what happened? Dodik's Zoran Tegeltija calmly moved into the director's office of the UIO without resistance, without a fight, without any serious attempt to fulfill the promise. The SDP fell silent as if they had never said what they said. As if it wasn't about a key institution of state and entity finances, but about some village cooperative.

The Trojka entered power headlong, driven by greed for positions, incapable of understanding that they agreed to a mechanism in which they have neither power nor integrity. And worst of all, it seems to suit them perfectly. Because as time passes, their leniency becomes grotesque.

Let's recall the episodes concerning the Ministry of Security, where the Trojka agreed to personnel solutions that would be treated as humiliation in any reasonably normal political structure. Then the somersaults regarding the director of SIPA, his deputy. Every point was a new capitulation. And each time the justification was the same: "Stability." Stability of whom? Whose stability? Certainly not the stability of the state, because this state has never been more unstable. Not the stability of citizens, because they have never lived harder. The stability of Dodik and Čović, well, that makes sense.

Today, we are at a point where Nikšić and the Trojka, cold-bloodedly, want to forgive 120 million KM to the entity of RS. Federation money. Money that could increase pensions by much more than what Nikšić offers pensioners. Money that could be a turning point for hundreds of thousands of people. But no, it is more important to have "political peace," not to upset Milorad Dodik, not to offend Dragan Čović.

The paradox is so brutal that even Toni Kraljević, the HDZ Minister of Finance of the Federation of BiH, defends the interests of the Federation louder than its Prime Minister. When the HDZ appears more principled than the SDP, we know that something in this country is not just disturbed but completely broken.

However, the saddest element of the whole story is the silence of the pensioners. The largest, most vulnerable, most neglected category. People for whom this money truly means a life change. The absence of their reaction is the best indicator of how exhausted society is, how fear has replaced rebellion, and hope has become a luxury. But the truth is simple: if they don't raise their voice, no one will. And Nikšić will continue to do what he does best: vote against the interests of the entity he leads, and in favor of the policies that hold him in their grip.

Because of all this, the question is no longer why Nikšić is silent. The question is, where is the red line? Does it exist? If 120 million is forgiven today, what is on the menu tomorrow? Elektroprenos? Borders? State property, pardon, fields? We have seen all of this before, each time a little deeper, a little more dangerous, a little more shameful.

The Federation of BiH today has a prime minister who acts as if his greatest responsibility is to "not spoil relations" with SNSD and HDZ. And the citizens of the Federation? For him, they are just a footnote signed in small print below the author's text written by Dragan Čović and Milorad Dodik.

And that is why perhaps the most accurate sentence we can say today is: the Trojka promised changes. We got changes. Only they were not the ones the citizens asked for, but exactly the ones Dodik and Čović hoped for.

Therefore, pensioners, it is time for you to take to the streets, there is money for much higher pensions, Nikšić is just giving it to Dodik. Go out and fight, otherwise you will continue to live on the edge of poverty and wait for the sun to appear from behind the December fog so you can warm up a little!