Opposition Bosniak Parties Ally Over Returnees Issue

After the Social Democrats terminated their coalition with the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, the SDA has sought a new partnership in opposition with the Party for Bosnia, SBiH, though only over the issue of returnees to the Bosnian Serb entity.The Party of Democratic Action, SDA, and the Party for Bosnia, SBiH, said they are now allies in terms of fighting for the rights of Bosniaks and Croats to return to their homes in the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska, the SBiH said on Thursday.The head of the SBiH, Amer Jerlagic, on Thursday said they were now cooperating with the SDA as patriotic parties ahead of upcoming local elections in Bosnia.

“If we do not act united, we [non-Serbs] are afraid that we could lose all our municipal seats in Republika Srpska,” Jerlagic said.

Gradimir Gojer, an official of the SBiH, said the SDP had betrayed the country and was working in tandem with the ruling parties in Republika Srpska.

“I am sorry to see that the process of the dissolution of the country is ongoing in front of very eyes of all real patriots and all citizens,” Gojer said.

Gojer qualified that the SBiH was not in a full coalition with the SDA, as their union, agreed on June 13, aplied only to work on helping returnees go back to the RS.

The new cooperation between the SDA and the SBiH emerged after the SDP-SDA coalition broke up two weeks ago.

The SDP then signed a new coalition with the Alliance for the Better Future, SBB, led by Fahrudin Radoncic, the owner of the most read daily newspaper in Bosnia, Dnevni Avaz.

The SDP, in a press release, ridiculed the SDA’s patriotic credentials.

“The SDA is not the only party defending Bosnia,” the SDP said. “When they ‘defended’ Bosnia [i.e., in government], the country was only getting weaker and poorer while their party men got more wealthy.”