In early February, Bosnia and Herzegovina was engulfed in protests. Throughout much of the country, people attacked police and set fire to government buildings. Hundreds of people were injured, but by luck no one died. The pogroms marked the end of a nearly 20-year period of calm after the Bosnian War. By taking to the streets, the country's residents have demonstrated their unwillingness to accept pervasive corruption and poverty, which they see as being rooted in an extremely ineffective government structure.

The riots began on Wednesday, February 5, in Tuzla, the industrial center of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the third most populous city in the country. About 600 former employees of four large enterprises that had recently gone bankrupt came out to rally there. First, these enterprises were privatized, then their assets were sold off, and then several thousand workers employed by them were fired without payment of severance pay.

Demanding to save the factories and pay back wages (some had not been paid for more than two years), the workers came to the local administration building. They were not allowed inside, after which eggs and stones were thrown into the police cordon. Soon football fans joined the action, setting fire to car tires and breaking windows in buildings. 17 people were injured, mostly police officers, and 24 people were arrested.

The next day, several thousand demonstrators took to the streets of Tuzla. They were driven away from the administration building only with the help of tear gas. Unrest began to spread across the country: clashes between demonstrators and police occurred in the cities of Zenica and Bihac, as well as in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo.

The events reached their climax on Friday, February 7th. After clashes with the police (in addition to tear gas, they had to resort to rubber bullets, water cannons and stun grenades), the rioters besieged the presidential palace and the government building of the capital canton and set them on fire. As a result, both buildings burned out almost completely. Among other things, unique historical documents from the times of Austria-Hungary, stored in the state archive, were lost in the fire.

Fire in a government building in Tuzla. February 7, 2014

The administration building was also set on fire in Tuzla. Before this, demonstrators broke through and began destroying furniture, throwing things out of windows and looting. Government buildings were also burned in the cities of Mostar, Zenica and Travnik. In Zenica, a crowd pushed the cars of several officials into the river. In Brčko, pogromists took the mayor hostage, who, however, was quickly released. In total, rallies took place in more than 20 Bosnian cities. The number of victims was more than 200 people, dozens were arrested. Since Saturday, the tension has subsided - the demonstrations have become peaceful, many residents have come out to clean the streets.

Photo gallery

Sarajevo is on fire

Bosnian demonstrators stormed the presidential palace

The authorities' response to the riots turned out to be surprisingly modest: instead of denouncing the rioters, administration representatives began making conciliatory speeches. “Responsibility for everything lies with us ( politicians - note from Lenta.ru ),” said Zeljko Komsic, who represents the interests of the Croatian community in the presidium (the collective body of power that performs the functions of the president). Komsic's tone was echoed by his colleague Bakir Izetbegovic, who was elected co-president from the Bosniaks. According to him, the country's leadership should meet the demonstrators halfway and hold early parliamentary elections. “It seems to me that people want a change in power,” he said. “It seems to me that within three months we should give citizens a chance to choose those they trust: the current arrangement no longer works.”

The main demand of the demonstrators was the resignation of the current leadership. Some civil servants have already met the protesters halfway: employees of the administrations of Tuzla and Zenica, as well as the head of the government of the canton of Sarajevo, announced their dismissal.

However, these concessions are not enough for the residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina - they want a complete change in the entire government structure of the state, which emerged as a result of the Bosnian War of 1992-1995. We are talking about collective governance, in which all three ethnic communities living in Bosnia and Herzegovina - Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks - take part. Their interests are represented by co-presidents, who take turns heading the presidium (the current “main” president is the Croatian Kosic).

This structure became a compromise designed to resolve the contradictions that provoked the civil war after the collapse of Yugoslavia. However, the downside of this compromise was constant infighting in the leadership, when some members of the federation blocked the proposals of other communities. As a result, it took a lot of time and effort to make even the most basic decisions, which clearly did not contribute to successful economic development.

Today, Bosnia and Herzegovina is among the European countries with the highest unemployment rate: some estimates put it as high as 44 percent. Working Bosnians also cannot boast of high income: the average monthly salary in the country is 420 euros (19.7 thousand rubles), and about 20 percent of the population is below the poverty line. Approximately the same proportion of Bosnians are forced to earn money in the informal sector of the economy.

Since 2009, when the country was hit by a crisis and its GDP fell by almost three percent, Bosnia's economy has barely grown. The slowness of officials leads to the fact that foreign investors are extremely reluctant to invest in local enterprises. In addition, budget expenditures are increased by an overgrown bureaucratic apparatus.

Bakir Izetbegovic, co-president from 1/3 Bosnian

The main factor due to which the Bosnians' discontent accumulated over the years, which ultimately resulted in pogroms, was the wholesale privatization of state-owned enterprises. Due to total corruption, a significant part of such transactions were carried out in violation of the laws, while no one defended the rights of employees of the acquired enterprises. As a result, a layer of oligarchs has formed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who have become rich through the massive purchase of enterprises, while there is essentially no middle class in the country. Now those who take to the barricades are announcing the onset of the “Bosnian spring.”

Some hopes for improving the situation in the country appeared in 2012, when Sarajevo started thinking about joining the EU. To do this, Bosnia and Herzegovina had to demonstrate certain economic successes, which required structural reforms. However, their development is proceeding at a sluggish pace, and given that the country faces parliamentary elections in October 2014, it is unlikely that anyone will undertake serious reforms in the next ten months.

Experts do not presume to guess what awaits Bosnia and Herzegovina now. The determining factors now are two factors: how the authorities and ordinary residents will behave. If the former regard the outbreak of discontent as a truly serious warning and begin reforms, and the latter do not aggravate the situation by organizing new pogroms, the country has a chance of stabilization and achieving economic success. If at least one of the parties does not consider cooperation productive, Bosnia faces much greater troubles than a few burned buildings.

Assets were sold, workers were dispersed