Bosnia’s Presidency Chairman attended the reception in the Emperor’s Mosque in Sarajevo, amid Eid al-Fitr where he told N1 he was convinced in Sefik Dzaferovic’s victory in the general election but also that he was proud with everything that was achieved during his term in office.

“I expect the Democratic Action Party’s (SDA) candidate, Sefik Dzaferovic, to win the election and become the next Bosniak Presidency member. I also expect the SDA to improve its election result to a certain extent,” Izetbegovic told N1.

Speaking of the results achieved during his term, he said one of the most important SDA’s achievements was preserving the state and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity’s coalition.

“Our pre-election platform gave rise to the Reform Agenda (a set of reforms in Bosnia’s EU Accession process). Depending on the level of government, between 60 and 70 percent of the Agenda was implemented. We did everything to preserve the coalitions, to preserve the prime ministers and the governments from pointless attacks,” he reaffirmed. “The coalitions were unreliable and unfunctional at times, but in the end, we made progress in our EU and NATO accession processes.”

“Our economic indicators are such that they resemble the regional indicators and we are the first in the region when it comes to exports. We have made some 50,000 – 60,000 jobs during our mandate.”

Asked to comment on the issue of youth leaving the country to live and work abroad, Izetbegovic confirmed the problem cannot be solved overnight. The process can only be slowed down by more responsible political activities and the local politician should speed up their activities on Bosnia’s economic development, primarily through infrastructure projects in the field of traffic and energy.

After the end of his mandate, Izetbegovic told N1 he plans to remain the SDA Leader.

“That function has consumed me more than the function of Bosnia’s Presidency member,” he concluded.