Mladen Ivanić (, ; born 16 September 1958) is a Bosnian Serb politician who served as the 6th Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2014 to 2018. He is the founder, member and former president of the Party of Democratic Progress.
Ivanić served as minister of foreign affairs from 2002 to 2007. He was also Prime Minister of Republika Srpska from 2001 to 2003. Ivanić served as member of the national House of Peoples from 2007 to 2014 as well.
Early life and education
Born in Sanski Most, Ivanić has lived in Banja Luka since 1971, when he earned his university diploma in economics in 1981. He then received a doctorate from the University of Belgrade in economics. His thesis was titled Contemporary Marxist political economy in the West. He undertook post-Doctoral studies at the University of Mannheim and the University of Glasgow. Upon completion of his studies, he worked as a journalist. From 1985 to 1988, he lectured in Political economy at the Faculty of Economics in Banja Luka, and later also in Sarajevo. Ivanić is a founding member of the center-right Bosnian Serb Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) and was its president from 1999 to 2015.
Presidency (2014–2018)
2014 general election
The Alliance for Change, a coalition formed around the Serb Democratic Party and Ivanić's PDP, amongst some other parties as well, announced on 14 July 2014 that Ivanić would run in the Bosnian general election as a candidate for Bosnia and Herzegovina's three-person Presidency member, representing the Serbs.
At the general election, held on 12 October 2014, Ivanić was elected to the Presidency, having obtained 48.71% of the vote, narrowly beating the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats' (SNSD) candidate, the Republika Srpska prime minister Željka Cvijanović, who obtained 47.56% of the vote. His victory marked the first time since the Dayton Agreement that a Serb member of the Presidency received the highest number of votes in the country, out of the three elected members. He was then Chairman of the Presidency from November 2014 to July 2015 and again from November 2016 to July 2017.
2018 general election
At the 2018 general election, held on 7 October, Ivanić lost his bid for re-election to the Bosnian Presidency to SNSD's leader and Republika Srpska president Milorad Dodik. Dodik obtained 53.88% of the vote, while Ivanić was second with 42.74%.
Domestic policy
Attitudes towards the Republika Srpska referendum
A referendum on the National Day of Republika Srpska, called the "Day of Republika Srpska" was held on 25 September 2016. A year prior, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ruled against the constitutionality of the holiday, deeming it discriminatory against non-Serbs in the entity. Republika Srpska authorities reacted by contesting the decision of the Constitutional Court and calling for constitutional amendments within 120 days to get rid of international judges serving in the Court, simultaneously calling for a popular referendum on whether Republika Srpska citizens support the decision of the Court. On 9 January 2016, the entity's authorities celebrated the "unconstitutional" holiday, in spite of the Court ruling.
About the National Day referendum announced by Milorad Dodik regarding the legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ivanić stated: