The international community's High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, on Thursday adopted a decision on unblocking the appointment of the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, putting an end on the blockade imposed by the Bosniak SDA party.

According to the changes made by Schmidt, the House of Representatives of the Croat-Bosniak Federation entity can decide on confirming the appointment of the new government without the signature of both vice-presidents of that entity. So far the confirmation has been considered valid if both of the vice-presidents signed it.

Also, now it is necessary to have the support of 50 legislators in the 98-seat lower house for the appointment of the new government.

According to some announcements, the new Prime Minister of the Federation will be Nermin Niksic, the SDP party leader. The deputy PMs from the Croat and the Serb peoples will be Toni Kraljevic of the HDZ BiH party and Vojin Mijatovic of the SDP party respectively.

The decision adopted by Schmidt is one-off.

The German diplomat recalls that on 7 April he had called on the local politicians to reach agreement on the matter autonomously.

However, a stalemate that lasted for a long period made him step in.

The Vice President of the Federation, Refik Lendo of the SDA party has so far refused to sign the decision on the appointment of new PM and the ministers in the federation’s cabinet, who were nominated by the President, Lidija Bradara of the HDZ BiH party.

Her nominations were immediately signed by the other Vice President Igor Stojanovic of the SDP party.

The HDZ BiH and the SDP are the key elements of the current ruling coalition agreed after the October 2022 elections.

The parliament of the Federation of BiH is expected to convene on Friday to confirm the new government in a fast-track procedure.