What parties demand to enter government

The establishment of government in BiH after the General Elections held in 2014 was slow, and parties had different conditions for their representatives to sign a coalition agreement, as no single party in BiH won enough votes to act independently, the Patria News Agency reports.

Thus, the citizens of BiH waited five months after the General Elections for the establishment of the FBiH Government and the Council of Ministers.

The establishment of the Council of Ministers went much smoother than the FBiH Government, because the Alliance for Change (a bloc of parties from RS led by SDS) had clear conditions, and the method of electing and distributing positions is simpler.

However, much was problematic in forming the FBiH Government. At the beginning, the agreement on the Federation of BiH got stuck due to DF's Željko Komšić's demands to have the same number of ministries as HDZ BiH and to be allocated the Ministry of Finance, which HDZ President Dragan Čović ruled out as a possibility, and he requested and received six out of sixteen ministries.

DF and SDA received five ministries each (one joint), but soon after the government was formed, the coalition broke down because DF strongly opposed the controversial Decree, and the SDA and HDZ outvoted DF in the FBiH Government and adopted the decree exempting dismissals and appointments in public companies from line ministries and transferring them to the Government.

The case is now before the Constitutional Court of FBiH, and DF is awaiting the outcome and final decision, and it is very likely that DF's decision to remain in power or become opposition will depend on the Constitutional Court's ruling. Given that two DF ministers have already been dismissed, SDA has started looking for new coalition partners, but they have encountered large appetites from small parties.

A-sda and SBiH are now officially part of the ruling coalition, BPS has withdrawn from further negotiations, and Fahrudin Radončić's SBB has now joined the discussion. BPS, by the way, conditioned its entry into government with the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, the Environmental Protection Fund, 28 positions in management boards, and gave Izetbegović a deadline to resolve "political murders", among which they included the family tragedy experienced by Sefer and Semir Halilović.

A-sda wants to "cash in" its entry into the coalition by taking the Ministry of Trade in the FBiH Government. SBiH's cadres, who sought the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry for themselves, have already been installed in some public companies such as Elektroprivreda, and SBB claims that they do not even need positions in the executive government.

Reportedly, Radončić told Izetbegović at a meeting that he was aware of the severity of the political crisis and was ready to contribute maximally to the stabilization of political conditions in the country and support the current government, regardless of whether SBB would be part of the ruling coalition.

However, how likely it is that something like this will happen is currently unknown, as an official meeting of SDA and SBB delegations has not yet taken place.

It should be noted that Izetbegović said that SBB would not be left without a share of the pie in power if they joined. It has been speculated for some time that Radončić is interested in the position of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, which is currently vacant, and if DF were not to return to power, several positions would remain.

In the FBiH Government, SBB would thus retain the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, and Tourism and Environment after BPS withdrew, and in the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Deputy Minister of Defence.

What and how large SBB's demands would be if DF were to withdraw from all cantonal governments as well is currently unknown. But it is known that no one enters power just like that, for nothing.

What is important to note is that HDZ BiH made no concessions during the formation of the government, and Čović got everything he wanted. Thus, HDZ BiH holds finances at all levels, and Marinko Čavara, the President of FBiH, leads the FBiH Government.

It is now clear that the Agreement titled Programmatic Principles of Parties and Coalitions for the Establishment and Operation of Government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, signed between officials representing the coalition of parties gathered around the Croatian Democratic Union of BiH (HDZ), the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), the Democratic Front (DF), is just a dead letter on paper, and it is no longer even discussed, although all the leaders of these parties waved papers saying that the future was in them.