Bosnia Federation President Delays Dismissing Ministers

The President of the the larger of Bosnia's two entities, the Bosniak-Croat Federation, has said he will resist pressure to immediately dismiss ministers following the break-up of the coalition between the Social Democratic Party, SDP and the Party of Democratic Action, SDA.

Zivko Budimir held several meetings on June 18 on the political situation in the entity regarding the new coalition formed by the SDP with the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, its sister party, HDZ 1991, and the Alliance for a Better Future, SBB, which will result in the removal of the SDA ministers in the entity.

Budimir met the presidents of both chambers of parliament in the entity to discuss the SDP plans. He also spoke to the leader of his Croatian Party of Right, HSP, Zvonko Jurisic, the US ambassador to Bosnia, Patrick Moon, and other officials.

But Budimir said that the current coalition formed last March by the SDP, SDA, HSP and the People's Party Work for Progress, NSRZB, was still functioning well.

“If the government [in the entity] is to be changed, something more qualitative has to be presented to me,” Budmir said, adding that he would not dismiss any ministers as yet.

The SDP and HDZ leaders, Zlatko Lagumdzija and Dragan Covic, signed their formal coalition deal on Sunday, stating their intention to cooperate until the next general election in 2014. They said their first goal was to reconstruct the Federation government.

For the coalition deal to be implemented in the Federation, SDA, HSP and NSRZB ministers will have to be dismissed by President Budimir.

Social Democrat and HDZ MPs in the entity signed a demand for an extraordinary session of the entity parliament to be held soon.

“We will schedule that extraordinary session, but those demanding it will have to elaborate on the reasons for it,” said Denis Zvizdic, president of the House of Representatives, one of the two chambers of the entity parliament.

The SDP coalition with the SDA broke up after the SDA refused to support the adoption of the 2012 state budget.

After that Lagumdzija asked Bosnian's state Prime Minister, Vjekoslav Bevanda to dismiss the two SDA ministers and deputy minister from the state government.

In the state government, the SBB is now expected to take the Security Ministry and the position of deputy Finance Minister while the SDP will obtain the Defence Ministry, instead of the SDA.