Nenad Nešić was the last Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one year ago.
With his arrest last December, the chair in the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina remained empty. This issue has become a political trade in which the competition is still ongoing, so Ivica Bošnjak, the deputy, took over the position of acting minister. Six months ago, the House of Representatives supported the proposal for Nebojša Vukanović to be a minister. And that’s where it all stopped.
Nenad Nešić was arrested during his tenure as Minister of Security. After five months of detention, Nešić was released. No charges have been filed. He resigned from the post of minister for moral reasons. This was supposed to facilitate the appointment of a new one, but it did not happen. Delegate Zlatko Miletić believes that, in accordance with the law on the Council of Ministers, the chairman Borjana Krišto is responsible for the non-appointment.
“I really think that this transfer of responsibility by them, and that by not appointing the Minister of Security to the Council of Ministers, they are protecting the back of the SNSD. And in fact, this axis has been created where we spin in a vicious circle from which we cannot get out. The Troika is created as they are there, however, they also have their share of responsibility, because the Council of Ministers does not function in the way that is provided for by law,” points out Miletić.
Even the Troika is looking for answers from chairman Kristo. They ask that, as the chairwoman of the Council of Ministers, she submits a proposal for the appointment of the Minister of Security, Nebojša Vukanović, to the parliamentary procedure. This initiative is six months old. Kristo ignored these requests. Appointing Vukanović would prevent the SNSD from blocking European laws, which has now become a practice.
“If the HDZ BiH stops its systemic support for the SNSD by appointing a security minister, whose proposal was signed by 19 representatives, we would abolish that element of the blockade within the Council of Ministers of BiH”, says Nihad Omerović, a representative of NiP in the PSBiH.
“This is the moment when we ask her whether and why she will not appoint a minister of security from among the opposition from RS in the coming period, in order to unblock the Council of Ministers and our EU path. HDZ is an accomplice in this process as much as they claim they are not”, says Edin Forto, Minister of Transport and Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Our Party).
“I don’t know what Minister Forto called me. I can also ask, I don’t know where Forto came from, as well as the Minister of Security. It would mean nothing to the institution of the Council of Ministers and its work”, says the chairperson of the Council of Ministers of BiH Borjana Krišto (HDZ BiH).
It is also interesting that Nenad Nešić had a ministerial position that was given to the SNSD and its coalition partners from the RS entity. With the departure of Nešić and the non-appointment of a new minister, the HDZ is de facto stealing that position from the SNSD, but the SNSD does not see anything controversial in that.
“When it comes to the functioning of the Council of Ministers, we are entering a phase of conditioning, which results in blockades,” says Srđan Amidžić, Minister of Finance and Treasury of BiH (SNSD).
While the SNSD conditions BiH’s European path and blocks the work of the Council of Ministers, the opposition from the RS entity reminds again that the appointment of Nebojš Vukanović means absolute domination over the SNSD.
“We showed as the opposition that we are ready to vote for those EU laws, but all the time we received a message from the HDZ BiH that we do not have enough political capacity and that we are not partners, and they should preserve their partnership relations. When we started to punish the HDZ by removing Čavara, we did not get support from the Troika either,” points out Nenad Grković, a representative of the List for Order and Justice in the PSBiH.
Apart from HDZ, analysts also see Troika parties as the culprit.
“HDZ is an accomplice because it blocks the appointment of the Minister of Security, but the Troika is an accomplice,” political analyst Sead Numanović believes.
“You chose them, I didn’t suggest them to you, you chose HDZ and SNSD as partners. Now until the end of your mandate, find a way to do it. You can’t act like someone who is offended and now you say ‘I won’t go with you’, but in fact you can’t do without him,” says analyst and journalist Almir Terzić.
Almost everyone who served as Minister of Security had problems with the law. Of the seven ministers, six were prosecuted during their mandate or after. There were those who bought off the sentence, but also those who were acquitted of all charges. The only one to whom no affair was connected is Bariša Čolak, he writes Radio Sarajevo.
