Instead of 'trojka' coalitions, an inter-entity coalition of parties seeking progress is emerging

By: A. Čorbo - Zećo

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Behind us is a week in which some announced 'grand coalitions' while others met and essentially began cooperation.

Eight days have passed since the pompous announcement and media 'bomb' about forming a grand coalition of the 'trojka' parties (SDP, NS, and NiP) and opposition parties from the RS entity (PDP, SDS, and DNS). The leaders of the 'trojka' from FBiH appeared together on a popular TV show and announced that 'negotiations are ongoing and a meeting will be held during the week where the leaders of these six parties will agree on the framework for a future coalition...' This was further explained through the media, stating that there are issues they cannot agree on and will leave for later, and that they will work together on issues they can agree on...

The public, especially in FBiH, and the media that announced this topic as a 'historic event,' awaited the realization of the announcement, the results of the meeting, or, as one of the 'trojka' leaders later stated, a coffee they were supposed to have with the leaders from the RS entity.

The entire past weekend, this was the number one media topic, and Konaković and Kojović in particular assured us that negotiations were underway and that there would be a meeting during the week that would be reported to the public and media. And then, silence. No meeting took place, no negotiations, no coalitions, not even coffee, even though a session of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament was held during the week, whose members included five out of the six actors in the story (Niksic, Kojović, Šarović, Borenović, and Nešić).

Why do the 'trojka' leaders need such amateurish outbursts and spins that dissipate in a week and expose their capacity? Not to mention their lack of capacity, a term one of these leaders likes to use, but when talking about the competition. Why do they need to show a lack of credibility through such obvious examples and demonstrate that their words and promises are not binding?

Setting aside the fact that the approach they took from the start was wrong and insufficient, as we have written about before, because the opposition in FBiH is not just the 'trojka.' For this country, they should first show that the entire opposition in FBiH can unite, and only then, with clear positions and policies, establish communication and cooperation with opposition parties from the RS entity, focusing on issues that are within the scope and jurisdiction of the BiH level.

The way the leaders of the Sarajevo 'trojka' have spoken about this topic since last weekend has shown that they currently lack the knowledge, vision, and understanding of how our country functions across its entire territory.

According to our confirmed information, the leaders from the RS entity, particularly Branislav Borenović, were completely taken aback and disappointed by the fact that someone was addressing these topics in the media without any agreement with him, announcing things they don't understand and which further complicate their opposition political activities and their fight against the current regime in the RS entity. That is why he refused to sit down with the 'trojka' from FBiH, even informally.

Instead, Borenović, as we have learned, spent two days in Sarajevo at another meeting, initiated and organized by the leader of the Independent Bloc, Senad Šepić, where they discussed the joint actions of opposition parties from FBiH and RS on concrete issues, namely BiH's accession to the European Union and the fulfillment of the 14 priorities from the European Commission's opinion for BiH to gain candidate status. This is an idea that has been in preparation for some time and which he announced immediately after the local elections and presented in his Platform Europe, Now. In addition to Šepić and Borenović, the meeting was attended by the leaders of PzP and NES, Hadžikadić and Ogresić, as well as leaders of some other opposition parties from BiH.

The goal is also to agree that they will work together on laws that will bring BiH closer to the European Union as soon as possible, and several other strong, opposition, parliamentary parties from both BiH entities will join this approach in the coming weeks.

Thus, in the week of grand media announcements and promises of grand coalitions, nothing happened. On the other hand, without any spins or media fanfare, the beginning of concrete cooperation between opposition parties from both BiH entities did occur. And, not based on populism, but on issues that are important for all people in our country and for the whole of BiH. Which is ultimately what is needed and what people in our country are crying out for: for their politicians to talk and appear on television and social media much less, and to work much more concretely for them and the future of their children.