Regional Bosnia government formed as protesters chant 'treason'

Daria Sito-Sucic
·2 min read
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People protest against the parliament's confirmation of Bosnia's new regional government, based on a ruling by Bosnia's international peace envoy Christian Schmidt, in Sarajevo
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By Daria Sito-Sucic

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia's parliament on Friday confirmed the new government of the autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation in a tight vote ordered by Bosnia's international envoy as protesters outside chanted "treason".

Following a devastating war in the 1990s in which about 100,000 people died, Bosnia was split into two ethnically based autonomous regions, the federation and the Serb Republic, linked by a weak central government.

The federation had been unable to form a government since an election last October because the largest Bosniak party, the SDA, has blocked any proposals that did not include its ministers.

Former German politician Christian Schmidt, who has vast powers as international High Representative in post-war Bosnia, on Thursday amended the constitution so that only two of three federation presidency members needed to support a proposed government to forward it to parliament, thus cutting out the presidency member from SDA.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken supported Schmidt's move, saying that Bosnians need a "functional, efficient, and accountable government".

"The United States fully supports the High Representative's actions today to help Bosnia and Herzegovina move towards a Euro-Atlantic integration," Blinken said in a tweet.

Fifty-one out of parliament's 98 deputies voted for the government, one abstained and two were against, while 44 walked out of the chamber failing to cast their vote.

Hundreds of protesters, mainly SDA supporters, waved Bosnian flags and chanted "treason" in front of the regional parliament in the capital of Sarajevo.

Echoing SDA complaints, they accused Schmidt of an anti-Bosniak bias and denied the legitimacy of a government they said was imposed by a foreigner.

The SDA dominated the outgoing federation government which remained in caretaker capacity since 2015 over similar political bickering after an election in 2018.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Nick Macfie)