Councilors' farce with Bandić undermines award's credibility

Councilors of the Sarajevo City Council either do not know who they are awarding or are playing with the credibility of one of the most important awards granted by the City of Sarajevo – Honorary Citizen of Sarajevo. Judging by the farce concerning Milan Bandić, the mayor of Zagreb, who held this title for only a month, the councilors, or rather the proposers, did not check at all into whose hands the award was going, writes the BiH news agency Patria.

According to the definition, an Honorary Citizen of the City of Sarajevo is an award given to citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who have particularly distinguished themselves in the development of the city, the improvement of international cooperation, and the preservation of peace in the country and abroad, or to foreign nationals who have made a special contribution to the development and affirmation of the city, as well as to the development of international and interpersonal relations based on the principles of solidarity, democracy, humanity, and tolerance among people.

So, according to the councilors' assessment, Bandić has particularly contributed to the development and affirmation of interpersonal relations based on the principles of solidarity, humanity, etc.

It does not take much research to find statements by Bandić who has been publicly speaking about the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2009. Although Bandić was nominated for honorary citizenship by the Party for BiH, none of the councilors are absolved, as they unanimously decided to grant him this award. Therefore, every councilor sitting in the Sarajevo City Council, from SDP, SDA, SBB, SDU, SBiH, BOSS, Our Party, and NLMG, bears responsibility for the farce called "honorary-dishonorable citizen Bandić".

Otherwise, if any of the councilors had read the model based on which one becomes an honorary citizen of Sarajevo, Bandić would not have even been nominated, and therefore not elected.