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Our Party (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Our Party
Naša stranka
Наша странка
PresidentEdin Forto
General SecretaryĆamil Osmanagić
Vice Presidents
See list
FoundersDanis Tanović
Dino Mustafić
Founded5 April 2008
Merger ofLiberal Democratic Party
HeadquartersBranilaca Sarajeva 5, Sarajevo
IdeologySocial liberalism
Economic liberalism
Secularism
Anti-nationalism
Pro-Europeanism
Political positionCentre to centre-left
National affiliationTroika
Regional affiliationLiberal South East
European Network
European affiliationAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
HoR BiH
2 / 42
HoP BiH
0 / 15
HoR FBiH
6 / 98
HoP FBiH
4 / 80
NA RS
0 / 83
Website
nasastranka.ba

Our Party (Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian: Naša stranka/Наша странка, abbreviated NS) is a social-liberal and multi-ethnic political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina, founded in 2008. Its current leader is Edin Forto. The party's founders are the Bosnian directors Danis Tanović and Dino Mustafić. The party aims to break the dominance of nationalist parties in the Bosnian political system. It is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

Platform

Our Party is a social-liberal and multi-ethnic party that seeks greater inclusion of citizens in the decision-making process in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[1] They are also pro-EU and pro-NATO.[2]

Our Party also believes that collective rights should not have priority over individual rights and are against ethnically-based decision-making processes. They believe that the rights of the constituent peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina should be clearly formulated and enumerated, and the party's belief is that the Constitutional Court should be the one protecting vital ethnic interests and not the national House of Peoples, which according to Our Party should be abolished.[3]

The party does not agree with the concept of privatization at all costs, but rather believes that it should be done strategically and that public companies should be kept public if they are financially and economically viable.[citation needed]

Our Party states in their 2015 official party economic programme that they consider the cost of labour in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be too high. One of the party documents was called "Third Way", reflecting the party's strong support of neoliberal ideas, such as support for the free market, free trade, deregulation, privatisation, reduction of taxes for private companies, public-private partnerships, etc.[4]

Our Party believes that small and medium-sized enterprises are essential for Bosnia and Herzegovina's economic development. According to the party's platform, taxes should be lowered in order to attract domestic and foreign investments.

The party is also for progressive taxation and differentiated VAT rates in order to make basic necessities cheaper. Our Party is also for the decrease of the enormous administration which according to them would significantly improve the country's economic situation.

The party believes, in contrast to the ethnic parties of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that the economy is the main integration mechanism.[5]

History

Foundation, 2008

Our Party was founded on 5 April 2008 on the initiative of a group of citizens and public figures led by prominent film directors Danis Tanović and Dino Mustafić.[6] None of them became president of the party, which is in contrast to most other leader-oriented parties that emerged in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war. Instead, they became vice presidents, together with Maja Marjanović and Boris Divković, while Bojan Bajić was elected party president and Fadil Šero secretary-general. The unifying element for the founders of Our Party was the dissatisfaction with the political practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time.

The first elections Our Party contested were the 2008 municipal elections, claiming their aim was to build the party infrastructure from below by building local organisations and dealing with real-life issues. They won 24 seats in different municipal assemblies and their candidate Hajder Ermin became the mayor of the municipality of Bosanski Petrovac.

2010–2012

Following the 2010 general election, and relatively poor results – two seats in the Sarajevo Cantonal Assembly and one seat in the Federal House of Peoples, Dennis Gratz was elected as the party's new president.

One of the main problems the party had in the period 2008–2010 was its large local infrastructure which was financially unfeasible. After the new leadership took over, the party started massive reconstruction. They decided to pull from municipalities where they lacked much support and concentrate on those municipalities where they did have such as Sarajevo municipalities, as well as Gračanica, Vareš, Zenica, Tuzla and Doboj-Istok.

2014–2018

The decision to concentrate on municipalities where they did have electoral success in the past proved to be successful, as Our Party doubled their number of votes and increased its seat number by one in the Sarajevo Cantonal Assembly. They also managed to win one seat in the Federal House of Representatives, and earned two seats in the Federal House of Peoples. After the 2014 electoral success, the party decided to once again expand their local organisations across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On 16 May 2015, Predrag Kojović was elected president of the party.[7]

On 4 June 2016, Our Party became a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.[8] The 2016 municipal elections were held on 2 October.[9] The party managed to significantly increase its share of votes in Sarajevo, becoming the second largest political party and the largest left leaning party in the city.

On 21 April 2018, Our Party announced the candidacy of Boriša Falatar in the Bosnian general election, running for Presidency member and representing the Croats.[10] In the general election, held on 7 October 2018, he failed to get elected. However, the visibility of the Falatar campaign helped Our Party to quadruple its number of votes, and quadruple its number of elected parliamentary representatives compared to previous elections. As a result, the party formed a coalition government in the Sarajevo Canton on 26 December 2018, appointing a Premier and two ministers.[11]

2020–2024

On the eve of the 2020 municipal elections, Our Party entered into a four-party liberal coalition alongside the Social Democratic Party, People and Justice and the Independent Bosnian-Herzegovinian List, colloquially known as the Four. In the elections, the alliance made significant results in Sarajevo, winning in the municipalities of Centar, Novo Sarajevo, Stari Grad and Ilidža, as well as other major cities in the country.[12] Our Party vice-president Srđan Mandić was elected municipal mayor of Centar.[13]

In the 2022 general election, the party won two seats in the national House of Representatives and six seats in the Federal one.[14] Following the election, a coalition led by the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, the Croatian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party, including Our Party, reached an agreement on the formation of a new government.[15] Party president Edin Forto was appointed as the new Minister of Communication and Traffic within the newly formed government.[16]

Our Party repeated its electoral success in the 2024 municipal elections, with Srđan Mandić getting re-elected as municipal mayor of Sarajevo's municipality Centar.[17]

List of presidents

# Name
(Born–Died) 		Portrait Term of Office
1 Bojan Bajić
(b. 1978)		 5 April 2008 26 March 2011
2 Dennis Gratz
(b. 1978)		 26 March 2011 16 May 2015
3 Predrag Kojović
(b. 1965)		 16 May 2015 4 September 2021
4 Edin Forto
(b. 1972)		 4 September 2021 present

Elections

Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Year Leader # Popular vote % HoR Seat change HoP Seat change Government
2010[a] Bojan Bajić 14th 19,435 1.18
0 / 42
 New
0 / 15
 New Extra-parliamentary
2014 Dennis Gratz 18th 10,913 0.67
0 / 42
 Steady 0
0 / 15
 Steady 0 Extra-parliamentary
2018 Predrag Kojović 10th 48,401 2.92
2 / 42
 Increase 2
0 / 15
 Steady 0 Opposition
2022 Edin Forto 9th 49,481 3.12
2 / 42
 Steady 0
0 / 15
 Steady 0 Coalition
  1. ^ Run in coalition with New Socialist Party.

Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Year Leader # Popular vote % HoR Seat change HoP Seat change Government
2010 Bojan Bajić 14th 23,222 2.32
0 / 98
 New
1 / 58
 New Opposition
2014 Dennis Gratz 10th 15,248 1.54
1 / 98
 Increase 1
2 / 58
 Increase 1 Opposition
2018 Predrag Kojović 6th 50,947 5.09
6 / 98
 Increase 5
3 / 58
 Increase 1 Opposition
2022 Edin Forto 6th 50,815 5.21
6 / 98
 Steady
4 / 80
 Increase 1 Coalition

Presidency elections

Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Election year # Candidate Votes % Representing Note Elected?
2018 4th Boriša Falatar 16,036 3.74% Croats — No
2022 1st Denis Bećirović[a] 330,238 57.37% Bosniaks Support Yes
3rd Vojin Mijatović[a] 38,655 6.1% Serbs Support No

Cantonal elections

Notes

  1. ^ a b Member of the SDP BiH.

References

  1. ^ Gekić, Haris; Bidžan-Gekić, Aida; Drešković, Nusret; Mirić, Ranko; Péter Reményi, Péter, eds. (2022). The Geography of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Between East and West. Springer. p. 191. ISBN 978-3-0309-8523-3.
  2. ^ "NAŠA STRANKA". NAŠA STRANKA. naša stranka. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  3. ^ http://www.kurir-info.rs/aktuelne-vesti/u-bih-osnovana-nasa-stranka-tanovic-kopredsednik Archived 2008-12-07 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Programska opredjeljenja" (PDF). nasastranka.ba. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2018.
  5. ^ "Programska Deklaracija" (PDF). nasastranka.ba. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 August 2016.
  6. ^ Pleşu, Andrei (30 September 2010). "Neither here nor there". VoxEurop.
  7. ^ "Predrag Kojović izabran za novog predsjednika Naše stranke". klix.ba. 16 May 2015.
  8. ^ "Ciudadanos, Nowoczesna, Naša stranka and Civic Position join ALDE Party | ALDE Party". Archived from the original on 6 October 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  9. ^ "Aktuelno". izbori.ba. Archived from the original on 3 November 2016.
  10. ^ "Boriša Falatar: Zaslužujemo bolje, i naša zemlja i svi mi | Naša stranka". www.nasastranka.ba (in Bosnian). Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  11. ^ "Izabrana Vlada Kantona Sarajevo, Edin Forto novi premijer". radiosarajevo.ba (in Bosnian). 26 December 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  12. ^ Rathfelder, Erich (17 November 2020). "Lokalwahlen in Bosnien und Herzegowina: Schlappe für die Nationalisten". Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). ISSN 0931-9085. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  13. ^ "Srđan Mandić novi načelnik Općine Centar". nasastranka.ba (in Bosnian). 15 November 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  14. ^ "Central Electoral Commission B&H". www.izbori.ba.
  15. ^ N.V. (25 January 2023). "BiH dobila novo Vijeće ministara, državnu vlast sada čini SNSD, HDZ, SDP, NiP, NS, DNS..." (in Bosnian). Klix.ba. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  16. ^ "Predstavnički dom potvrdio novi saziv Vijeća ministara BiH". vijeceministara.gov.ba (in Bosnian). 25 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  17. ^ B.R. (7 October 2024). "Srđan Mandić je najveći pobjednik izbora: Politički je preživio što mnogi ne bi" (in Bosnian). Klix.ba. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
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