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.
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 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]
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]
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