This week there were two peaceful protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first protest was organized in Zenica on 9th of February 2025, and it was followed by the protest in Sarajevo on 10th of February. Protestants aimed to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina when it comes to corruption, inflation, and especially the country’s inability to sanction those who are responsible for the death of 29 people during the floods in October 2024.
Protest Walk in Zenica
The protest in Zenica started on Sunday (February 9th) at 12pm in Alija Izetbegović square, and it lasted for one hour. It is estimated that more than four thousand people joined the protests to express their dissatisfaction with the current living conditions in their city, but also in Bosnia and Herzegovina in general. The protest included a walk through the city, and the walk ended in the square where it started, when the organizers (an informal group of people from Zenica) also addressed the issues Bosnians are faced with, and demanded that these problems be solved as soon as possible.
The demands included the following:
- Inflation and the rising prices – citizens demand concrete measures to restrain the rise in prices of essential goods, and consultation with experts when it comes to making economic decisions. For context, this is a reaction to the recent increase of the minimum salary, where the minimal salary increased from 619 Bosnian Marks (equal to 316 Euros), to 1000 Bosnian Marks (equal to 511 Euros), while the taxes that need to be paid to the state budget almost doubled.
- Fiscal reforms – they demand the reduction of tax burdens on labor in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They also underlined that the constant increase in salaries of public servants should stop, especially in this economically difficult situation.
- Review of public enterprises – they demand the review of business in public institutions, especially when it comes to heating plant in Zenica, as many people are without heating even though it is regularly paid for.
- Transparency in spending of public funds – they demand transparent reports about the money that was supposed to go to people whose homes were devastated in Jablanica during the floods in October 2024, and they want an explanation about why the delay of help to people in Jablanica.
- An increase in pensions – the organizers demanded a clear plan for the increase in retirements while using the money delivered to the Pension and Disability Insurance fund through the increase of certain levies.
- Lastly, they brought up the issue of bullying in schools, which has become quite significant. The solution they propose is that the Center for Social Work provides more funds for psychological and pedagogical support of students. Before concluding with the protests, the organizers invited the protestors to join the student protest announced to be held in Sarajevo the following day.
Student Protest in Sarajevo
The protest in Sarajevo started at noon on Monday (February 10th), and it was organized by an informal group of students. A protest of several thousand of demonstrators was held in front of the Parliament building in Sarajevo, as the demonstrators addressed their demands to the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This protest, unlike the one from Zenica, focused on demanding justice for 29 people killed in Jablanica, Fojnica and Konjic during the floods in the previous year.
The protest started with saying names of all the people who died during the floods, including an unborn baby. The organizers brought 29 white balloons filled with helium, and each balloon was released in the air after the name of the killed person had been told.
The protest proceeded with the demands the organizers and demonstrators addressed to the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who were inside the Parliament building at the time of the protest:
- Urgent investigation and urgent filling indictments against those responsible for the landslide. – For the context, floods in Bosnia happened in October 2024, where 19 people died only in Jablanica due to the landslide. Several more people died due to the floods in the Bosnian cities of Konjic and Fojnica. However, according to the investigation after the floods, the landslide was not the result only of a natural disaster. It was influenced by the nearby illegal quarry. Still, nobody was legally sanctioned for it.
- Urgent informing about the steps taken by the competent authorities and institutions in regard to the death of 29 Bosnian citizens.
- Criminal sanctioning of everyone responsible for the work of an illegal quarry that caused the death of 19 people in Jablanica.
- Criminal sanctioning of those responsible within competent authorities and institutions, who failed to take preventive actions and prevent the death of 29 people during the floods in October 2024.
- Audit of all quarries and ecologically dangerous projects that might represent the danger in the future.
- Alignment of all zoning plans with the map of the landslide, and the map of flood-prone rivers across Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to prevent disasters similar to Jablanica, Konjic and Fojnica.
- The public display all the information about means of help gathered for Jablanica, and show the amounts of money spent from the budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also from the help that came from other countries.
- The public display the plans and the dynamics of reconstruction for the flooded areas.
This protest, as well as the protest in Zenica, demonstrated the frustration of Bosnians with the current work of the government in Bosnia. Similarly to the regional protests in Croatia and Serbia, the demonstrators blame widespread corruption for all the disasters. Both protests happened safely without any incidents.
Protests in the Neighbouring Countries
The protests in Bosnia have been encouraged by the protests in Serbia and Croatia, where similar disasters have happened due to carelessness of competent authorities. Thus, peaceful protests in Serbia are being organized every day for more than a month, and the protests consist of 15 minutes of silence for 15 people who died in an accident where a roof fell on them at the Railway station in Novi Sad.
Written by our corresponded D.I.
