Lagumdžija and Izetbegović's Alliance is Not Threatened: Only Parties Will Suffer!

The alliance and tacit agreement between the leaders of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), Zlatko Lagumdžija and Bakir Izetbegović, remains firm, despite SDA's announcement that it will support the dismissal of Lagumdžija from the position of head of diplomacy, was confirmed to the BiH news agency Patria (NAP) by sources in both parties.

Namely, Izetbegović and Lagumdžija secretly agreed on the post-election distribution of positions a few weeks ago, according to which Izetbegović would go to the Presidency of BiH, and Lagumdžija would become the head of the Council of Ministers of BiH.

One of the series of secret meetings between these two leaders was held a little over two months ago at the Hotel Bristol in Sarajevo. It was agreed that the SDP would not nominate its candidate for the Bosniak member of the BiH Presidency, and in return, Izetbegović would push Lagumdžija for the mandate.

However, after SDA announced that they would dismiss Lagumdžija, it seemed that the agreement had failed. However, as Patria has learned, this is not true.

Lagumdžija and Izetbegović have only initiated a agreed-upon and controlled, pre-election political conflict, from which only the two of them will emerge unscathed and take their promised positions. What will happen to the parties, and how they will fare, is a question many officials from both parties are asking, Patria has learned.

This is also confirmed by the fact that neither Izetbegović publicly criticizes Lagumdžija, nor Lagumdžija criticizes Izetbegović. This will be the duty and obligation of lower-ranking party officials, who have already begun mutual accusations and verbal warfare in media statements.

As we were told, the goal of this is to homogenize the voter base ahead of the October elections. However, as we learn, there is a strong opposition within both parties, which opposes such a spectacle and the confusing of voters. They fear that both parties, SDA and SDP, could lose the elections due to this tacit agreement and a kind of deception of the loyal voter base.

- Both SDA and SDP have a disciplined voter base and membership that is clearly differentiated. If the leaders, Lagumdžija and Izetbegović, betray their expectations and try to go into the elections insincerely and calculatingly, they will be punished. And our votes will go to the alternative - Fahrudin Radončić and Željko Komšić - a high-ranking SDA official told us, who wished to remain anonymous.

Lagumdžija himself stated a few weeks ago that he cooperates with Izetbegović in everything that is in the interest of the citizens, and an example of this is the investment package offered to Qatar.