Blocking the formation of the new Council of Ministers was a planned political game which has nothing to do with Bosnia’s Membership Action Plan for NATO. It is about occupying important functions to prevent Serbs from the Republika Srpska (RS) entity and the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) from taking office, the RS President Zeljka Cvijanovic said.
“The blockade lasts for too long. We’re needlessly wasting time and shortening the time during which someone from the RS could have been the Council of Ministers Chairman,” Cvijanovic told the press.
After every general election, the position of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers is given to the winning party from one of the three major ethnic groups in Bosnia (Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats).
The current Chairman, Denis Zvizdic, comes from the strongest Bosniak party, the Democratic Action party (SDA) who won the most votes during the last general election and were the strongest Bosniak party. This time, the position belongs to Serb representatives – the SNSD, who are the strongest, nationalist party from the Serb-dominated, semi-autonomous entity of the RS.
Commenting on Zvizdic’s statements that the appointment of the new Chairman should be made simultaneously with the adoption of Bosnia’s Annual National Programme (ANP) for NATO, Cvijanovic noted that Bosniaks are using the NATO and MAP stories as an excuse for some other political goals.
The ANP is a precondition for the activation of Bosnia's Membership Action Plan (MAP) for NATO after the NATO Alliance approved its activation for the country in December 2018. But, even though Bosnia adopted a number of laws and regulations saying it will fulfil all the preconditions for the MAP, Bosnian Serbs stand against it.
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She recalled that the position of the Council of Ministers’ Chairman belongs to the SNSD as the winning Serb party after the October general election in Bosnia and that everyone is aware of that.
“Zvizdic’s occupied the position for too long. We’ve had the election, and it’s time to implement the results and form the new Council of Ministers,” Cvijanovic said. “He’s occupying this position with the aim of preventing a Serb from the SNSD from taking office.”
According to her, after the Council of Ministers is formed, it should define its agenda for this mandate and start working on its implementation because only that is in the interest of all Bosnian citizens.
