You shut down the Zenica coke plant.
You shut down the Lukavac coke plant.
You shut down integrated production at the Zenica steelworks.
You close the Zenica coal mine.

…all within an unbelievably short period of time.

And what do we get as a result? A lack of timely action. An emotional, nostalgic reaction. A kind of quiet resignation. Three days of selfies, lamentations, and the collection of cheap political points, without any concrete solutions or calls for accountability. Yet even in all this, there may be an opportunity. Because it turns out it is possible to have clean air, a healthy environment, and jobs at the same time. The Zenica steelworks could have had that too. Industrial transitions take 10–15 years. They are not something you force overnight. After World War II, it took 13 years in Yugoslavia to fully restart production and mark the beginning of a new steelworks. In 1958, Marshal Tito visited Zenica for the sixth time, and that’s when the final blast furnace, the third one,was completed. It operated for 66 years. But it took over a decade to stabilize the system.

So the real question now is: what next?

The fate of the Zenica steelworks and its development path is now in the hands of the city, its citizens, and its workers. Should ownership be reclaimed? Should we ask who originally took the land for the plant without public consent? Production has now been shut down without anyone asking the workers or the people of Zenica.

When ArcelorMittal (under Lakshmi Mittal) sold the company, I wrote critically about it. arguing that workers should have been informed. Many responded: why would a private owner inform anyone? But by that same logic, why should the new owner (Goran Pavlović) receive state support? Perhaps the answer lies in a different model: worker ownership. The question is who would dare to pursue such an idea, since it would immediately be labeled as a return to communism or worker self-management. There are, of course, many more “acceptable” or modern terms for similar models, but the essence remains the same. Maybe it’s time to test genuine self-management, without state interference or private dominance, where workers are also the owners. Because in Zenica, the transition from socialism to capitalism and consumerism never fully happened. The city remained heavily dependent on the steelworks, which was never truly “Zenica’s”: 8% state-owned and 92% privately owned. A hybrid that satisfied no one. This is also an ideological issue. And it’s unrealistic to expect those who shape policy based on social media trends to fully understand it. Many are careerists who see politics as a mechanism for personal advancement, focused on position changes and rotation, rather than long-term systemic work. Real work has never been their priority. Instead, inactivity is masked through PR spin, catchy headlines, and the invention of enemies.

So how can such people understand workers?

And that is precisely where the answer lies: the steelworks can only be saved,,or transformed, by those who truly care. And those are, above all, the workers. As for environmental concerns, I remember my late father, who was a foreman in the steel plant before the 1990s. He used to say that when local workers were on shift, they were very careful about emissions. But when they weren’t, he would advise people not to go outside at all, because of what might be released into the air. That pattern hasn’t really changed. But solutions do exist. The real question, as always, is: who controls ownership and management?And perhaps this moment is also an opportunity, for a different kind of political articulation.

We’ll see.

Because we are living through a time of technological transformation, a kind of third industrial revolution. The question is who will lead this difficult process.

A painful process, yes, but one that may be the only path toward recovery.