Nijaz Duraković Foresaw SDP's Collapse, The List of Disappointed is Growing

The message delivered by the late Professor Nijaz Duraković at the Congress of the Social Democratic Party of BiH (SDP) in November 2002 was visionary and best heralded the beginning of the collapse of the SDP in BiH, writes the Patria News Agency.

First, the respected Professor Duraković left the SDP, and his footsteps were followed by: Miro Lazović, Ivo Komšić, the highly esteemed Bogić Bogićević, Nermin Pećanac...

Among the last to leave the SDP was Željko Komšić, who, at least as it turned out in the October elections in the country, took half of the SDP's voter base to the newly formed Democratic Front (DF).

- I irrevocably resign my membership in the SDP, my membership in the Presidency, and good luck to you, choose, choose as you have orchestrated it - Lagumdžija, and by doing so you will bury the SDP in these lands - was Professor Duraković's announcement in November 2002, after which the SDP began to die, as the professor had predicted.

All those who were not enthusiastic about national parties in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina turned to the SDP. However, something suddenly went wrong.

Many believe that the SDP has been "cursed" from the day 17 years ago when Lagumdžija came to the head of the party, after which he would rule it sovereignly and autocratically, without allowing others to have their own opinion, until December 6, 2014.

Lagumdžija, a Sarajevo university professor, computer science expert, Prime Minister of the Republic of BiH during the first years of the Serbian aggression against BiH, wartime Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH... did not seem like a politician who would collapse a party with a decades-long tradition beyond recognition. However, that is exactly what happened.

All of this, as Nijaz Skenderagić, a former high-ranking member of the SDP, stated earlier to the media, is the result of Lagumdžija's effort to create an autocratic organization in which he, surrounded by his obedient followers, would be the absolute master.

In the 2010 General Elections, citizens in the Federation of BiH last entrusted the SDP with their confidence, when the party was the absolute winner of the elections.

However, four years later, the SDP won the fewest votes in the history of the party's existence. After that, the SDP lost Bakir Hadžiomerović, a candidate for the BiH Presidency in the last elections, the mayor of the Sarajevo municipality Centar Dževad Bećirović, university professor Hanka Vajzović, Amel Mekić, Mira Jurić, Slobodan Popović...

Currently, a large number of SDP councilors would gladly move to the Democratic Front, where they have already held talks, but they are all bound by contracts with the SDP, which is their only obstacle.

Lagumdžija was removed from the position of SDP president on December 6 last year under pressure from party members, and Nermin Nikšić was elected in his place.

- Those who have tried to reform the SDP so far have not succeeded and have most often been declared dissidents - Professor Salih Fočo explained earlier to Patria.

The only hope for BiH social democracy lies in the latest efforts of the new SDP president, Nermin Nikšić, to stop the exodus of cadres and members, and to unite the left in BiH in cooperation with Željko Komšić, writes NAP.