Infighting Brings Down Bosnia's Ruling Coalition

Bosnia's second-strongest Bosniak [Bosnian Muslim] national party, the Alliance for Better Future, SBB, on Friday announced the breakup of its coalition with the main Bosniak party in the country, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA.

After months of deadlock, bickering and media mud-slinging, which in various ways involved all of the main political parties, this SBB announcement marked the official end of the coalition that has held power in Bosnia's Federation entity as well as at the state level.

Increasingly venomous exchanges between the SBB and SDA leaders, Fahrudic Radoncic and Bakir Izetbegovic, in which they accused each other of various criminal acts and blunders, reopened their old personal animosities.

It created a situation in which it was only a matter of time before one or other leader would end the failing marriage.

"The coalition between the SBB and [SDA leader Bakir] Izetbegovic broke apart because of his [Izetbegovic's] lying to everyone," the SBB said in an angry statement on Friday.

Since the 2014 general elections, the SDA and the SBB, together with the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, had ruled Bosnia's Federation entity and held power most of the entity's ten subdivisions, known as cantons.

A similar coalition, but including a bloc of Bosnian Serb opposition parties, the Alliance for Change, also ruled at the state level.

This latest development adds to Bosnia's political uncertainty and opens the door for further tensions.

However, it is unclear whether the official collapse of the ruling coalition will bring about any immediate major changes, as the coalition was effectively already blocked by political infighting, which has raged on for almost a year.

Some...