Bakir Izetbegović

Bakir Izetbegović (born 28 June 1956) is a Bosnian politician who served as the 6th Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2010 to 2018.

He is the current president of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA).

Born in Sarajevo in 1956, Izetbegović is the son of the first and only president of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović.

Bakir Izetbegović was born in Sarajevo, PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia on 28 June 1956.

He is the son of the first President of independent Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović and Halida Repovac.

He graduated from the University of Sarajevo in 1981, working afterwards in architectural firms.

He attended primary school and high school in Sarajevo and graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Sarajevo in 1981.

From 1982 to 1992, Izetbegović worked as a consultant at an architectural consulting firm.

He made big contributions to many social activities – he was a member of the management board of FK Sarajevo, a member of the management board of KK Bosna Royal and of the Management Board Member of the Muslim Humanitarian Society "Merhamet" and member of the Council of the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Izetbegović's father groomed him as his personal assistant to be the future Bosniak leader.

A member of the SDA since its founding in 1990, Izetbegović has been a member of the party's presidency since 2002.

From 1991 to 2003, he served as director of the Construction Institute of the Sarajevo Canton.

After serving as director of the Construction Institute of the Sarajevo Canton, Izetbegović entered politics in 2000.

He entered politics in 2000 and after serving in two regional assemblies, was elected to the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 2006 general election.

He became the Deputy Head of his father's Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Caucus in the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton in 2000, a position he continued to progressively undertake at higher levels – at the Federal House of Representatives from 2002 to 2007, and at the national House of Representatives from 2007 to 2010.

He also became the Chairperson of the Delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Izetbegović has been a member of the SDA Presidency since 2002 and a member of the party since its foundation in 1990.

At the 2006 general election, he was elected to the national Parliament.

At the 2010 general election, Izetbegović was elected Bosniak member of the Bosnian Presidency.

At the 2010 general election, Izetbegović was elected to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina as the Bosniak member.

He came in first in a field of nine candidates with 35% of the vote.

The runner up, Fahrudin Radončić, won 31% of the vote, while incumbent Haris Silajdžić won 25%.

The remaining 9% of the votes were split among other candidates.

In February 2011, Izetbegović attended a panel in New York City, dedicated to the Dayton Agreement, organized by the Clinton Foundation.

The panel was also attended by Croatian President Ivo Josipović.

He was re-elected four years later at the 2014 general election.

As both Presidency member and president of the SDA, he took part in many constitutional reform talks for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

During his presidency, Bosnia and Herzegovina faced difficulties following the 2014 Southeast Europe floods, as well as having mass riots some months before the floods.

Since 2014, he has been serving as the party's president.

Izetbegović has been accused of monopolizing the party and silencing most of his internal critics, while drawing power into his own hands and those of a few close allies.

At the 2014 general election, Izetbegović ran for a second term in the Presidency, winning 247,235 votes, 32.8% of the total and being elected for a second time.

He was followed by Fahrudin Radončić with 26.7% and Emir Suljagić with 15.1%.

Seven other candidates split the remaining 25% of the votes cast.

During his campaign for the election, Izetbegović promised that there will be 100,000 new jobs if people voted for him.

In May 2015, he was elected president of the Party of Democratic Action, succeeding Sulejman Tihić.

In November 2017, he threatened with war if Republika Srpska opted for independence, and at the same time controversially said that Bosnia and Herzegovina should recognize the independence of Kosovo.

On 22 November 2017, a discussion was held on the matter on the TV show Globalno of RTV BN.

Following the 2018 general election, Izetbegović became a member of the national House of Peoples.

At the 2022 general election, he once again ran for a seat in the Presidency as a Bosniak member, but was not elected.

He served in the House of Peoples until 2023.