Bosnia Federation Govt Wins New Ally for Reforms

A key opposition party, Union for better future, SBB, will fully support the government of Bosnia's Federation entity and its reform agenda, party leader and media mogul Fahrudin Radoncic said.

"We will fully support the reform agenda... whether or not the SBB is in opposition or not," Radoncic said after a Monday meeting with the Bosniak member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, the head of the leading Bosniak party, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, Bakir Izetbegovic.

Radoncic said the SBB would back the government's reform agenda regardless of whether it becomes the official part of the ruling coalition and won positions in Federation institutions. 

He added that he and Izetbegovic will continue discussing the modalities of their cooperation in the coming days.

Under the agreement, the SBB will support proposed rebalance of the Federation budget which is on agenda of the Federation parliament on Friday, Radoncic added.

The development represents a potential breakthrough for the Federation government, which has been operating without a parliamentary majority for months since the Democratic Front, DF, quit the ruling coalition.

Following the 2014 general elections, Izetbegovic and the SDA - the strongest party in the Federation as well as at the state level - refused to cooperate with the SBB because of a long personal feud between Izetbegovic and Radoncic.

Izetbegovic initially formed an alliance with the DF, but the two parties quickly parted over the distribution of key posts in Federation institutions.

The SDA tried to replace the DF with several smaller parties but that agreement quickly fell apart as well.

Relations between Izetbegovic and Radoncic started improving when it became obvious that the SBB...