Parliament approves Kristo’s nominations for her cabinet.

Two members of the Bosnia state governing coalition leave in protest of the new law on state property adopted by the assembly of Republika Srpska, the country’s other entity, on 12/28/22. The new coalition still has a majority, with 23 of the 42 seats in parliament. Its members are: he main Bosnian Serb party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, and six parties from the so-called “Osmorka” (Eight) – which is a group of Bosniak and civic parties from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The federal composition is unchanged. The coalition already appointed a new chair of the federal Council of Ministers, a de facto state prime minister, the vice-president of the HDZ, Borjana Kristo, the first woman to hold the position.

Borjana Kristo accepted the role of prime minister-designate, to become the first female prime minister in Bosnia’s history. For the first time in more than 10 years, the governing majority excludes the main Bosniak nationalist party, SDA. The long-entrenched Croat and Serb nationalist parties, Kristo’s HDZ and SNSD, led by staunchly pro-Russian Serb politician Milorad Dodik, will be part of the coalition. As part of the coalition agreement, the latter two pledged to focus on bread-and-butter issues rather than stoking the ethnic tensions never far from the surface since the end of Bosnia’s 1992-95 interethnic war.

Bosnia’s application to join the EU is upgraded to formal recognition.

Voting for the three presidents who rotate the governing role. Zeljka Cvijanovic, an ally of the current Serb member of the presidency, Milorad Dodik, is running for the Serb member of the tripartite presidency. Both are leaders of the Serb nationalist, secessionist SNSD party. Dodik is running for president of Republika Srpska, a separate office. Zeljko Komsic, the incumbent Croat member of the presidency of the multiethnic, centrist Democratic Front party is running against Borjana Kristo of the right-wing Croat nationalist HDZ for the Croat presidency. The leader of the HDZ, Dragan Covic, is known to have used Bosniak detainees from Croat concentration camps as slave labor in wartime Bosnia. Komsic, a veteran of the wartime Bosnian government army, formed the Democratic Front in 2013, which aims to form a civic state with equal rights for all, without ethnic segregation. The HDZ has said it would ally itself with the SNSD and if two of the presidents are from that alliance, it would have a powerful effect on national security and relations with the Republika Srpska part of Bosnia.

Christian Schmidt, the high representative for Bosnia, has been discussing a change to the Bosnian constitution such that in any canton where less than 3% of the population is a given nationality, that nationality would lose its representative from the canton. Critics are outraged, saying it will give the Croat and Serbian nationalists too great an influence in the House of the Peoples in the Bosnian-Croat Federation’s parliament. The Office of the High Representative (OHR) is an international institution responsible for implementing Bosnia and Herzegovina’s peace agreement.

Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia frustrated at EU failure to allow them to proceed with their applications after many years of waiting.

US sanctions the president of the Bosniak-Croat federation and an official of the Bosnian-Serb federation, among others, accusing them of threatening the country’s democratic institutions.

Retired Bosnian Muslim general sentenced to eight years in prison for war crimes committed against Bosnian Serbs in the war.

Increasing calls for a reform of the constitution, which a court in 2014 called discriminatory toward its citizens.

Serbs hold national celebration that was declared illegal by the Constitutional Court as discriminatory.

US sanctions Serb leader Milorad Dodik, accusing him of undermining the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dodik announces that Bosnian judiciary, security and intelligence agencies will be banned from operating in Republika Srpska and “Serb-only institutions will replace them by the end of November. Dodik asserts that the moves do not constitute secession.

Serbian member of the tripartite presidency, Milorad Dodik, says Serbs will quit all major institutions in the country after the UN High Commissioner bans genocide denial.

Osman Mehmedagic, the head of the Intelligence-Security Agency (OSA), is arrested on corruption charges.

Kosovo lifts all tariffs on Serbian and Bosnia-Herzegovian goods, a gesture toward reconciliation. The tariffs had been imposed when Serbia tried to block Kosovar access to international organizations in 2018.

Bosnia Herzegovina declares a state of emergency due to COVID-19.

Government takes control of its airspace from NATO for the first time since the end of the war.

Dragicevic posts online video that he is safely in hiding and encourages supporters to continue protests.

Fourth Saturday of protests against the regime, initially sparked by the murder of David Dragicevic.

Protests in Serbian region of Bosnia over the death of a student in 3/18 and the pursuit of justice by his father, Davor Dragicevic. No political motive has been definitely ascribed to the death, but protestors see a cover-up and demand the resignation of the Bosnian Serb interior minister.

Central election commission changes a controversial law, which enables a new government to be seated and adopt a budget, staving off financial collapse by the end of the year. However, Bosniak parties, including the leading Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the leftist Social Democratic Party (SDP), will challenge the law in court. The issue is deeply divisive and politically sensitive. The underlying question is whether the legislature should be based on the last pre-war census from 1991 or the most recent official one from 2013. The constitution names the 1991 census, and Bosniak politicians also claim that the 2013 census would cement the process of ethnic cleansing. However, politically, both options give small but crucial advantages to either Bosniak or Croat parties seeking to establish ruling coalitions in the Federation entity and at the state level.

Mayors of four northern cities, all members of Srpska Lista, resign to protest imposition of 100% tariffs on Serbian imports. Similar tariffs were imposed on imports from Bosnia.

Croats protest seating of Komsic, saying that he is too moderate.

Nationalist Milorad Dodik claims victory in Serb seat in the presidency. He has proposed a vote on uniting Serb portion of Bosnia-Herzegovina with Serbia. The Bosnian Muslim Party declared victory for Safik Dzaferovic and the Croat seat will go to Social Democrat Zeljko Komsic, who unseated incumbent Dragan Covic from the nationalist right. Komsic won 49.5% of the vote, but Covic protests that Bosniaks voted for him and he calls for elections in which only the ethnic group votes for its president.

Serb-majority area, Republika Srpska, delays attempt to hold a referendum on the judiciary, supported by Pres Dodik.

Constitutional Court rules that the electoral mechanism to establish the House of Peoples in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina violates the constitution. Bosnia state parliament has six months to fix the problem.