For Time from Banja Luka
Milorad Dodik no longer president Republika Srpska and, as he said in the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska, "he lives a life that he would not wish on anyone".
Nevertheless, he continued with the old custom of insulting and humiliating dissenters, calling them fools and foreign agents, toothless, making decisions for which he is not competent and committing new criminal acts. One of them is impersonation and the other appointment of a new prime minister after the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CEC) stripped him of his presidential mandate. In a revenge campaign, he dismissed the adviser Ćamil Duraković, the vice president of the Republic of Srpska. His car has now been confiscated and the use of the apartment in which he lived during his mandate has been revoked.
Dodik accepted one part of the verdict of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, paid the prison sentence, and the execution of the other is possible at this moment, as is said in Banja Luka, only if he is "surgically removed from office". The court accepts when necessary, but mostly challenges it. Just like the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, he decided that on behalf of the citizens of Republika Srpska, the referendum overturns the court verdict in the part in which he is prohibited from political activity for the next six years. He sent the National Assembly an order to prepare a text on the self-determination of the Serbian people and the Republika Srpska. In that "fatal referendum", citizens should, in addition to annulling the verdict of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, also reject the decisions of the High Representative and the Central Election Commission.
Professor of constitutional law Milan Blagojević emphasizes that it is not within the competence of the National Assembly or citizens to discuss and decide on the judgments of the courts, nor on the decisions of the CEC of BiH. The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not contain a provision that allows or prohibits a referendum, but no lower level of government can call a referendum only on a part of the territory that concerns the jurisdiction and decisions at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the adopted referendum question, there are three demands towards the citizens of Republika Srpska. They should declare "whether they accept the decisions of the unelected foreigner Kristijan Šmit and the verdicts of the unconstitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina pronounced against the President of the Republic of Srpska, as well as the decision of the CEC to revoke the mandate of the President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik".
The attitude of the ruling politicians in the RS towards the High Representative Christian Schmidt since the beginning of his mandate has been extremely negative: they consider him a tourist, a colonial manager, a man who came to "finish what the Germans failed to do in World War II". In the midst of, according to some, the "biggest political and constitutional crisis in BiH" after Dayton, it is interesting how Schmidt, as the president of Serbia, went from being a "great friend of the Serbian people" to a "Gaulair".
DODIC, FATE AND COMMENTS
Dodik and his lawyers believe that the High Representative is acting unconstitutionally. That's how fate played with Dodik - the same scenario happened to him according to which the then High Representative Carlos Westendorp dismissed Nikola Poplasen from the presidential post in 1999. At that time, Milorad Dodik believed that "that right is above the Constitution".
Namely, Dodik was the entity prime minister when one of the founders of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), Nikola Poplašen, was elected president of the RS. After Dragan Kalinić from the Serbian Democratic Party failed to form a majority to form the government, Poplašen, with the consent of the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milošević, decided that Dodik's party colleague Brano Milijuš should be appointed to form the government.
However, Miliuš did not have the support of the rest of the SNSD, which is why he was excluded from this party. The high representative at the time, Carlos Westendorp, threatened Poplašena that he would fire him if he tried to remove Dodik from the post of prime minister. And since Poplashen tried to do it anyway, the High Representative dismissed him on charges of destroying the Dayton Peace Agreement. Poplasen accused Westendorp of acting unconstitutionally, while Dodik reacted with the following words: "It is the right of the high representative to reach out for that decision, which he received under the Dayton Agreement, which contains the clause that he is above the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the constitution of the entity. Westendorp did not disqualify Poplasen, but Poplasen himself disqualified himself in the past five months, exercising his function in his own unique way. He threatened the democratic development of the RS, and in this respect, it did a lot of damage. It's good that he left."
DODIK AS A STICKER
There is no citizen protest against the verdict against Milorad Dodik. For years, the local government turned those citizens into good followers who do not need to think for themselves, but instead bow down to the leader who made the Republika Srpska equal to himself. With the story of the danger of the Serbian people, national lines were tightened and the public was kept under anesthesia.
photo: government of rsWHAT A PRESIDENT OF THE RS, SUCH MANAGER: Savo Minić
This kind of attitude towards the "numb" citizens returned to the current government like a boomerang - when the hot potato was transferred to their hands, they remained speechless. The fiercest advocates or opponents of Milorad Dodik "war" on social networks and that's where the support ends. The exception is those who, like the new mandate holder Savo Minić, have no other option but to go all the way with the "boss".
Thus, the president of the Banja Luka board of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats and member of the National Assembly of the RS, Vlado Đajić, believes that "everyone, especially the opposition, and the people should bow down to Milorad Dodik and ask him not to go, to stay, because "we will not find such courage and struggle as he led and knowledge".
With the message "Your knowledge is our future", Dodik found himself as a mandatory sticker on free school textbooks. For this purpose, and in order to prevent it from being used for commercial purposes, it is necessary to mark each textbook that is given to students free of charge with a sticker that emphasizes who and in what way provided the financing and allocation of the textbooks.
"Dodik's nervous breakdown in the National Assembly and expulsion from the Arena are a definitive confirmation that the opposition has a responsibility to remove this government as soon as possible", believes Igor Crnadak, head of the Club of Representatives of the opposition Party of Democratic Progress in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska.
For Crnatka, "the outrageous parliamentary behavior of Milorad Dodik, who cannot accept the fact that he is no longer the president of Republika Srpska", is a definitive confirmation that the opposition has no right to calculate and that it must now show responsibility and courage.
"The decisions that Dodik imposed on the National Assembly are dangerous for the Republika Srpska, they can threaten peace and security, deepen our isolation and force thousands of citizens to commit serious crimes that have nothing to do with Šmit, such as violently preventing the holding of elections," says Igor Crnadak. "Last week, we also saw that the people of Serbia showed what they thought of Dodik, when 20000 people in the Arena literally drove him out with whistles and shouts. What else do we need to be clearly convinced that the early elections are a chance for the Republika Srpska, a chance to start its rescue, its escape from the enormous calamity that befell us in the last 20 years under the rule of Dodik and SNSD".
There are fewer and fewer citizens who "fall for" colorful referendum lies and promises about life from Hollywood movies, high salaries, funds that will bring tens of thousands of marks to every child in the RS, investments in billions, because the life lived by the majority of BiH citizens is at least a life worthy of a human being.
During the illegal and unconstitutional appointment of a new representative - for which he publicly claims that he had constitutional authority - Dodik also held an exposition in place of the new so-called prime minister:
"The SNSD and the ruling coalition in the previous period offered a government of national unity. The opposition political parties did not want that, but we made a promise to the public, and that is why the government resigned. The government will be concentrated. In the coming year, we will provide investments that must not be less than four billion marks, we will aim for the average salary to be 1000 euros. We plan to end the next year with a domestic product of 20 billion," said Dodik, adding that he would seek from the Prime Minister that, from the beginning of next year, the minimum salary for those with secondary education will be 1100 KM, and for those with higher education 1400.
"I want to develop the 'Start' program, with which high school students would immediately have a job after finishing school, if they do not want to study," announced Dodik. "The same applies to students. We will also develop the 'Active Woman' program. A Children's Savings Fund will also be formed. This means that 1000 KM will be provided immediately after birth for each newborn child until the age of 18, and they will only receive that money if they stay in Srpska. And if not, they will have to return the money."
TRUMP, SERBIA, HELP
photo: Zoran Zestić / Tanjug...
Dodik advocates the thesis that the Central Electoral Commission cannot take away his mandate, because the people have given him trust. He received the certificate from that commission, and took the oath in front of its members. As a reminder, at that time, after the parliamentary elections in 2022, a control count was carried out, and the report on the results of the entity president election was never made public by the Central Election Commission.
Then Dodik threatened to secede if he was not declared president, while CEC member Željko Bakalar publicly said that the report could not even be done because 60 percent of the material in those bags for the president of the RS were contaminated - slips or printed in printers that were not authorized for that or belonged to some other level of government. Thus, political corruption of a high degree was established.
Now Dodik believes that the verdict was "planted" in order to "prevent him from talking to Trump", and he demands from the new president, whom he proposed unconstitutionally, the continuation of "an even more rigorous policy of Republika Srpska in the position that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not our country". While the authorities in RS expect the new US administration to be "partners, in addition to Russia, China, Hungary and other friendly countries", they announce a radical break with the European path.
"Europe is a lying story," said Dodik. "It will collapse in the next year. They have no economy, when you heard them talk about human rights. There is nothing from European integration. It has failed." He admitted that he himself worked on European issues and believed in that story:
"Why is Dodik to blame? Because he has his own attitude. I also worked on the European road. But now it's not like that. Circumstances say that the European Union is a liar. Look at the fraud they keep sending us. They send us a foreigner to introduce some rules here."
Perhaps the best evidence of Dodik's fight for respect for human rights is that during his presidential term defamation became a criminal offense, and for years he tried to label representatives of civil society as foreign agents and activists to bring the LGBTQ population into the framework of traditional values.
Although he tries with all his might to get closer to Trump, he also got angry with his administration because he had the promises and support of the people of America. "They told me to wait a little longer, this was all wrong for 30 years, America has an obligation to change its attitude," said Dodik.
Despite the promises, in the annual report on human rights, the State Department concluded that the verbal and legal attacks of the President of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, undermined the constitutional order of BiH, and the divided and inflammatory rhetoric of the RS leaders contributed to the growth of political and ethnic tensions throughout the country.
"The authorities in the entity Republika Srpska, with a majority Serb population, which - together with the Federation, with a majority Bosniak-Croat population, and the Brčko District - make up Bosnia and Herzegovina, undertook continuous activities that significantly undermined state institutions, increased inter-ethnic tensions and limited freedom of expression," the report states.
"You have people in the State Department who do not follow Trump's policy," Dodik repeated in the RTRS morning program. "Then the delegation of the State Department came to Sarajevo at a confused moment and a representative of the old administration said 'only you do your job, and the US will recognize the verdict' - related to my case. Not a few days passed and they in Sarajevo did it."
He also told the Trump administration to "clear things up among themselves and then get back to him." He still reads messages from America as remnants of the deep state and the Biden administration."
NOMINATION FOR SUPPORT
During that time, Željka Cvijanović, a member of the BiH Presidency, nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. So - a woman who is on the blacklist of the United States of America and despite the fact that the nomination procedure is more than clear: "Proposals for the award can be submitted by qualified individuals, such as members of national parliaments and international courts, and previous winners of the award."
The Cvijanović initiative was not even on the agenda of the BiH Presidency, which was enough for Dodik to accuse "Muslim Sarajevo" of "hating Trump".
And while Dodik does not accept that he has lost the presidential chair, for which the greatest credit should be attributed to himself, the Central Election Commission is preparing everything for early elections. Republika Srpska stands at the crossroads between political adventurism and institutional strengthening through compliance with judicial decisions. On one side is participation in an unconstitutional referendum and acceptance of the overthrow of all principles of the rule of law, and on the other is a break with the decades-old system based on corruption and clientelism.
If Dodik does not manage to go down in history by taking Republika Srpska out of the "deadly embrace of BiH", he will certainly remain on the faded stickers of dusty school textbooks as a reminder of an insane policy.
