Dodik Offers to Freeze Unconstitutional Laws, RS Fears EUFOR's Actions

AUTHOR: M.J. GDNUS

The leader of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, offered on Thursday a “temporary freeze” on the unconstitutional laws passed by the parliament of that entity, while his associate, Željka Cvijanović, appealed to EUFOR not to take steps that could “further deepen the crisis” in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In a post on the social media platform X, Dodik commented for the first time on the messages sent by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, during her visit to Sarajevo on Tuesday, in which she clearly condemned the politicians from Republika Srpska for causing the current crisis in BiH.

However, Dodik skipped over this part in his post and focused on Kalas' statement that political leaders in BiH are responsible for finding a solution to the crisis by overcoming the current divisions, not deepening them, according to Hina.

Dodik now again insists that the crisis was caused by the High Representative of the international community, Christian Schmidt, who imposed amendments to the laws under which the current president of RS was controversially sentenced to one year in prison and a six-year ban on political activity.

Dodik claims that he was, in fact, defending the BiH constitution, while Schmidt was violating it.

“If Kalas believes that the constitutional order is what Christian Schmidt imposed, then we don’t understand each other,” he wrote.

He added that the only solution is to “annul” the voluntarism of the High Representative and all the decisions he imposed.

“In that case, Republika Srpska is ready to temporarily freeze the laws we recently adopted in the National Assembly. We want to give dialogue and an agreement among the three peoples a chance. I call for an agreement now,” Dodik wrote, who is now facing a new investigation under suspicion of undermining the constitutional order due to his incitement to pass laws contrary to the BiH constitution.

RS Leaders Under Investigation

Along with him, the president of the entity's parliament, Nenad Stevandić, and the RS prime minister, Radovan Višković, are also under investigation. The BiH Court has ordered detention for the three and issued warrants for their arrest.

The Chairwoman of the Presidency of BiH, Željka Cvijanović, on Thursday sent a letter to the head of the EU delegation to BiH, Luigi Soreca, and the commander of EUFOR, General Florin Marian Barbău, practically asking them not to allow the soldiers from the Althea operation to participate in the arrest of Dodik, Stevandić, and Višković.