At the end of last year, this state of former Yugoslavia was confronted with its biggest political crisis since the war of the 1990s. The country enters 2022 entangled in ethnic differences which pose the threat of a new conflict, explains the Croatian daily Jutarnji List.
The ruling coalition, formed fourteen months following the October 2018 elections by the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH), the Democratic Action Party (SDA, Bosnian) and the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD, Serbian), struggles to function. Led by such a government, the country has taken no steps to achieve the main objectives of its foreign policy, namely membership of the EU and NATO, while internal divisions deepen.
Out of the fourteen priorities set by the European Commission in 2019 as preconditions for obtaining candidate status for EU membership, Bosnia and Herzegovina did not achieve any last year. It will soon be six years since Bosnia and Herzegovina has been waiting for this status, thus surpassing the sad record held until then by Albania.
The coronavirus pandemic in 2020 exposed the total dysfunction of a state fragmented by the borders of its entities (the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serbian Republic of Bosnia, or Republika Srpska). Unable even to provide vaccines to its nationals, the government sought to get by by relying on international donations, while the health system was at the end of its rope.
Memories of the Srebrenica tragedy
In 2021, the administrative divisions left a deep mark, to the point that the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina were faced with the impossibility of being issued a common health pass, essential for traveling abroad.
One of the few positive points, despite an unfavorable environment, remains the economy. According to estimates by the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2021 was around 3.4%, with the same rate expected for this year. Among the good news of the year is also the recognition of Bosnian cinema, with the prize for best European film awarded to The Voice of Aida and its director, Jasmila Zbanic.
The heartbreaking drama of the Srebrenica genocide, in which more than 8,000 Bosnians were killed in the summer of 1995 by the Bosnian Serb army and police, once once more rekindled memories of trauma collective. The film is a reminder that Europe watched in silence the biggest crime committed on its territory since the end of World War II, and that some in Bosnia and Herzegovina still dispute the scale and genocidal nature of the Srebrenica tragedy.
2021 will be remembered for being the appointment of a new high representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina [Office of the High Representative, OHR]. In August, German politician Christian Schmidt succeeded Austrian Valentin Inzko, who held the post for twelve years.
This transfer of power marked the entry of Bosnia and Herzegovina into
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Ranko Mavrak
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Created following Croatia’s independence, the liberal morning newspaper is the country’s second-largest daily. There are quality reports and chronicles, the newspaper having opened its columns to many writers.
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