SDA to expel SBiH from coalition; Jerlagić will step down on his own to salvage what remains of the party's reputation

The Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina will soon leave the coalition it previously signed with the SDA, the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP) has learned from sources close to the party.

However, the same source further explains that this is not a matter of principled moves by the party president Amer Jerlagić, but rather an attempt to salvage what remains of the reputation of this political party. The source reveals that the SDA is preparing to expel SBiH from the coalition, but Jerlagić will announce his withdrawal from the coalition before that happens, in order to create the impression in the public that SBiH is led by principled cadres.

Jerlagić is also expected to launch a sharp attack on his former coalition partners and their unstatesmanlike policies, even though Jerlagić himself, before entering the coalition with the SDA, did not hide that he was entering government, among other things, for positions in some public companies, primarily in Elektroprivreda BiH, which he had previously managed.

After the DF left the coalition with the SDA and HDZ at the beginning of June this year, the SDA signed a coalition agreement with three smaller parties: SBiH, A-sda, and BPS, in order to have at least a narrow parliamentary majority. BPS left the coalition just a few weeks later, while SBiH and A-sda remained in that arrangement until today.

Things on the political scene have now suddenly changed. In October this year, the SBB joined the coalition with the SDA and HDZ BiH, after which any need for the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina in that combination ceased.

The media previously reported that the founder of the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dr. Haris Silajdžić, advised Jerlagić not to enter the coalition with the SDA, but Jerlagić did not heed the advice of the experienced Silajdžić, which, less than four months later, would prove to be one of his catastrophic moves, writes Patria.