POLITICAL VOICES

Zlatko Lagumdžija

Prime Minister of Bosnia & Herzegovina (2001- 2002), Member of Club de Madrid

Lagumdžija was Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina between 2001 and 2002. He also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs twice. As a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP BiH), Lagumdžija served as a member of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly from 2002 until 2012. When the SDP came into political power on a platform of economic reform and anti-corruption, Lagumdžija was lauded by the Western powers as the hopeful “face of a pluralistic, united Bosnia.”

Today, Zlatko Lagumdzija is involved in many international forums and has been awarded national and international awards for his research and diplomatic expertise. He continues to advise foreign governments and international organizations on peace-keeping, democratization, and development.

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Action

Lagumdžija is the founder of the Shared Societies and Values Foundation in Sarajevo. The main goal of the Foundation is to promote the concept of shared societies and the creation of shared values not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina and across the Balkans region but globally as well. Based on the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which for centuries lived as one society with different identities and mutual respect regarding religious and cultural differences and similarities, the Foundation aims to build new bridges and rebuild the old ones – the bridges of confidence, trust, mutual cooperation and common and shared future, not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina but all over the globe.

Relevant discourse

In a conference about “Islam and The West – Diversity and Integration“ in October 2018, Zlatko Lagumdžija said the following:

“A Shared Society – multiethnic, multi religious and multicultural society – is defined  as an inclusive one in which all individuals and constituent groups hold status as equally contributing participants, free to express their differences while integrating their voices within the broader population. It respects everyone’s dignity and human rights while providing every individual with equal opportunity. Core values of Islam as well as of today’s Europe are the core values of Shared Societies and they are common barriers to the greatest causes of contemporary human degradation generated by global and local segregation, injustice and inequality. I am not accepting that there is a natural and inevitable tension between Muslims and the rest of Europeans because then I would be neglecting the historical fact that Muslims in Bosnia are part of European tradition and identity. This is why the future of Bosnia as a civil state and a Shared society, as well as the future of Bosnian Muslims who are citizens of the European Union is a clear sign about the future of the European Union based on its fundamental pillar –  the European Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms.”

Zlatko Lagumdžija's channels