Azem KurticSarajevoBIRNJanuary 25, 202315:53Months after the October 2022 elections, Bosnia finally has a new state-level government – albeit with only a tiny majority in the state-level parliament.

Bosnia Finally Forms State-Level Government

Newly appointed state-level ministers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo: N1

Bosnia and Herzegovina completed the formation of a state-level government on Wednesday, several months after the October 2022 general elections, with the approval of the new Council of Ministers led by Borjana Kristo, vice-president of the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, the main Bosnian Croat party. 

Kristo and her council of nine ministers received minimum support in the House of the Representatives of the state parliament, with just 23 out of 42 members voting in their favour. 

Dragan Covic, president of the HDZ, congratulated his party colleague, Kristo. “Fast formation of the Council of Ministers proves that constructive political dialogue in BiH exists. Sincere congratulations to all,” Covic wrote. 

Others criticised the lack of gender equality among the new ministers. Zlatko Miletic, representative of For the New Generations, Za nove generacije, said: “Bosnia and Herzegovina has ratified UN Convention 1325, which talks about gender equality. Bearing in mind that only the HDZ nominated two women, and if that had not happened we would have had a council of men,” Miletic said prior to the vote. “Not to mention the competence and expertise of individual candidates,” he added. 

The state-level coalition in the House of Representatives of the state-level parliament and in the Council of Ministers comprises eight parties: the main Bosnian Serb party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, the HDZ, and six parties from the so-called “Osmorka” (“Eight”) – a group of Bosniak and civic parties.

Two of those eight, the Party for BiH and People’s European Alliance, NES, quit the coalition only 20 days after it was formed, demanding retraction of a new law on state property adopted by the assembly of Republika Srpska, the country’s mainly Serb entity, on December 28.

Source link: balkaninsight.com