Benjamina Karić

Benjamina Karić ( sr-Cyrl, Бењамина Карић; ; born 8 April 1991) is a Bosnian politician serving as the municipal mayor of Novo Sarajevo since November 2024. She previously served as the 39th mayor of Sarajevo from 2021 to 2024. She has been a member of the Social Democratic Party since 2009.

Karić was born in Sarajevo in 1991. She graduated from the University of Sarajevo and earned her doctorate from the University of Zenica. Karić later worked as an assistant at the Faculty of Law at the University of Travnik and in Kiseljak. Following the 2020 municipal elections, she became mayor of Sarajevo in 2021 as a replacement for Bogić Bogićević, who decided to pull out of the candidacy for mayor shortly before.

Karić served as mayor until November 2024, having been elected municipal mayor of Novo Sarajevo a month prior in the 2024 municipal elections.

Early life and education

Karić was born on 8 April 1991 in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia, to Bosnian Muslim father Hasan Londrc and Serb mother Branka (née Đinđić). She graduated from two faculties at the same time, the Faculty of Law, University of Sarajevo and the Department of History of the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo. She earned her doctorate in law from the University of Zenica in 2018.

Karić is a recipient of the Silver Badge of the University of Sarajevo for Outstanding Achievement in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Studies. She is an author of fifty publications, books, articles and translations from Latin to Bosnian.

In 2014, she was an assistant at the Faculty of Law, University of Travnik and in Kiseljak.

Karić joined the Social Democratic Party at the age of 18 in 2009, becoming the party's vice president ten years later, in 2019.

Mayor of Sarajevo (2021–2024)

Appointment

Following the 2020 Bosnian municipal elections, Bogić Bogićević, former member of the Presidency of Yugoslavia in the late 1980s and early 1990s, announced that he would accept the appointment as mayor of Sarajevo by the four-party liberal alliance, colloquially called the '' Four'', which was set to govern the City Council after the elections, and that also included the Social Democratic Party (SDP BiH). However, on 24 March 2021, he decided to pull out of the candidacy because of conflicts in the alliance. Karić was then proposed as a potential candidate, with the SDP BiH officially announcing that she would be the new candidate for the office of mayor on 5 April 2021.

Three days later on 8 April, Karić was unanimously elected by members of the City Council of Sarajevo to become the 39th mayor of the city, succeeding Abdulah Skaka.

Tenure

In June 2021, Karić visited the northwestern Bosnian city of Banja Luka, where she met with its mayor Draško Stanivuković, marking this event the first time after 26 years, and since the end of the Bosnian War, that the mayors of both Sarajevo and Banja Luka, as the two largest cities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, have met each other. Later during that same month, Karić and Istočno Sarajevo mayor Ljubiša Ćosić signed a memorandum on the construction of a bike path, planned to connect Sarajevo and the town of Pale. On 30 June, the city's authorities launched a project to rebuild the astronomical observatory located on the mountain Trebević. On 8 July 2021, she visited Istanbul and there met with its mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. On 17 July, the eve of her 100th day in office, Karić revealed plans for constructions of a large urban park, bike paths and excursion sites.

On 12 November 2021, the Sarajevo City Administration put up a monument in Kazani, honoring ethnic Serbs living inside besieged Sarajevo, who were victims of a mass murder by the forces of Mušan Topalović, commander of the 10th Mountain Brigade in the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War. On 15 November, Karić and High Representative Christian Schmidt unveiled the monument. UDIK, which was one of initiators of the monument, and families of the victims did not attend the unveiling after it was revealed that the perpetrators' names would be omitted from the plaque.

Throughout 2023, façades in Sarajevo's center, mostly those built during the Austro-Hungarian period, have been undergoing renovations.

In June 2023, Karić refused to project the rainbow flag, a symbol of LGBT pride, on the City Hall, and opted not to publicly show her support for the LGBT community, unlike most of her fellow SDP BiH members who have regularly showed support for the community.

Following a large escalation of the Gaza–Israel conflict in October 2023, Karić said it was "hypocritical to condemn Hamas' attack on Israel, and not to condemn all that happened before and after it".

In June 2024, it was reported that Karić would run for municipal mayor of Novo Sarajevo, a municipality within the city of Sarajevo, in the Bosnian municipal elections. The SDP BiH confirmed Karić's candidacy in July 2024. In the elections, held on 6 October 2024, she was narrowly elected municipal mayor of Novo Sarajevo, obtaining 42.21% of the vote, while her main opponent, Muamer Bandić, won 40.41%. Her term as mayor of Sarajevo ended on 18 November 2024. She was sworn in as Novo Sarajevo municipal mayor the following day.

Personal life

She is married to Alen Karić, and together they have one child. She lives with her family in Sarajevo.

In addition to her native Bosnian, Karić speaks English and German fluently.

References

Sources

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External links

Benjamina Karić
at Facebook

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karic, Benjamina
1991 births
Living people
Politicians from Sarajevo
Sarajevo Law School alumni
21st-century women politicians
Politicians of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina politicians
Mayors of Sarajevo
Women mayors of places in Bosnia and Herzegovina