With the position of foreign minister, is Zvizdić dropping out of the race for SDA president?

By: Amra Varatanović

The SDA has once again invited Fahrudin Radončić and the Alliance for a Better Future to form a strong patriotic political alliance at the state and federal level together with the Democratic Front.
It didn't take long for Radončić to respond to the SDA's invitation. The Presidency of the SBB will meet next week and "institutionally respond to the SDA's invitation." This could be interpreted as Radončić already knowing the answer, but that everything still needs to be formalized through party bodies.

It is no secret that the presidents of the SDA and SBB, Bakir Izetbegović and Radončić, have been meeting recently, but that there was no "green light from the SBB," as Izetbegović vividly described a few days ago.

For the sake of a strong coalition, the SDA will also share the three positions that fell to it in the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, the SDA will keep the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for itself, the DF will get the Ministry of Defense, and the SBB the Ministry of Security.

It is increasingly being said that the SDA will nominate Denis Zvizdić for Minister of Foreign Affairs. Zvizdić was not in the SDA delegation that held meetings with potential coalition partners. It is even said that during the negotiations between the PDA and the SDA, Zvizdić came to the meeting at the headquarters uninvited. At meetings with the HDZ delegation, Izetbegović was in the company of Adil Osmanović and Šefik Džaferović, but again Zvizdić was not there.

If the SDA were indeed to put Zvizdić forward as Minister of Foreign Affairs, this move would take him out of the race for president of the SDA.

Zvizdić has all the competencies to be Minister of Foreign Affairs, especially after his term as head of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has proven to be a moderate politician who has clearly defined how he would pursue a reconciliatory policy with partners, which is sorely needed in the entire Bosnian political discourse. Such a principle is also good for running the party.

If Izetbegović were to remain at the helm of the SDA for a second term, the question is how ready that party would truly be for the much-needed reforms. Izetbegović recently quite precisely identified the problems within the SDA: that the party's leading figures are old, hold multiple functions and have been in the same positions for a long time, that the party should turn from a Bosniak-oriented one towards a pro-Bosnian one with more Croats and Serbs, and that more young people and women are needed. So, almost everything, except that the first man of the SDA should also change. Perhaps that is why he said that the mandate for one function should be limited to 12 years.

Izetbegović is aware that Zvizdić enjoys the support of European politicians as well. He has a solid relationship with leaders from the region, as well as representatives of the European Union and other institutions. Zvizdić is the only one from Bosnia and Herzegovina who was invited to the Berlin Summit organized by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Zvizdić has already once withdrawn from the race for a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, even though he could have been the winner without any trouble. Whether he will also give up the fight for the first man of the SDA, we will know ahead of the SDA Congress on September 14.