Dodik sets three conditions for SNSD to join BiH government

Milorad Dodik, president of the SNSD, laid out on November 2 in Banja Luka, after a meeting of the party presidency, the conditions under which the SNSD will join the government at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the first time he has done so since the general elections of October 4. In the same address he spoke about relations with Serbia, where the Student List defeated the previously ruling Serbian Progressive Party in the parliamentary elections of October 25. For Belgrade the message matters because it comes from the leader of the party that runs Republika Srpska, the entity Serbia works with under the Agreement on Special Parallel Relations.

What three conditions does the SNSD set for joining the BiH government?

Dodik named three demands that apply to any future partner in forming a government:

• reform of the BiH Constitutional Court, without which the SNSD will not enter the Council of Ministers
• annulment of the High Representatives’ decisions that the BiH Parliamentary Assembly never confirmed, plus a detailed review of those it did
• no partnership with the bloc that includes the Party for BiH

The BiH Constitutional Court currently has nine judges: four are chosen by the House of Representatives of the Federation of BiH, two by the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, and three foreign judges are appointed by the president of the European Court of Human Rights. The SNSD wants each of the three constituent peoples to have three judges and no foreign judges at all. Dodik explained it this way:

“The Constitutional Court of BiH should have three representatives of each constituent people, so that we are protected from any outvoting or majorization. That was an inquisitorial court and we do not want to take part in its work with foreign judges.”

He spoke after the Party of Democratic Action of Bakir Izetbegovic, the strongest single party in the state parliament, announced coalition talks with the Party for BiH. To reach a majority, the SDA needs one more Bosniak partner, and Dodik’s third condition means the SNSD would not back such an arrangement. He named Dragan Covic’s HDZ BiH as the most important partner at the state level. “We discussed who we could continue cooperating with, and that is certainly the HDZ BiH,” Dodik said, adding that there is no partnership with the Party for BiH.

Asked about the High Representatives’ decisions and the European path, Dodik answered:

“We cannot move forward until we see what happened. The Constitution says what BiH is responsible for and what it is not. We are not primarily against the European path, but we do not want policies imposed on us that degrade Republika Srpska.”

The SNSD, he said, has not yet formed a negotiating team.

What majority is the SNSD counting on in Republika Srpska?

Dodik claims that the SNSD and its coalition partners will hold a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska from its constitutive session. That majority is needed to amend the entity constitution and to elect a fourth delegate to the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly. Four delegates in the Serb Caucus, he said, would give him the ability to block decisions in that chamber. He put it this way:

“Republika Srpska will have a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly already at the constitutive session.”

He summed up his election result in figures: more than 51 percent of the vote for president of Republika Srpska, 52 percent for the BiH Presidency member, about 40 percent for the National Assembly and 41 percent for the BiH House of Representatives. He described the economy as stable, with a gross domestic product of 20 billion KM and growth in manufacturing, and announced that pensions and the veterans’ allowance will rise by 7.5 to 8 percent next year, with higher pay for education workers from January 1. “Everything we have done so far fits in one sentence: Republika Srpska has never lived better than it does today,” he said.

What did Dodik say about Serbia and the Student List?

Asked about the change of government in Serbia, Dodik said Republika Srpska respects the voters’ choice and that cooperation will continue through institutional relations and the Agreement on Special Parallel Relations. Index reports his sentence this way:

“I expect excellent relations with the Student List, as with Serbia every time.”

RTRS summarizes the same position in its headline as an expectation of excellent relations with Serbia. Dodik added that there have been contacts with people from the new structures: “These people here cannot choose the government, and we do not choose it over there. We respect the government, so we respect them too.” The sources diverge on one of his claims. According to RTRS, he said the authorities in Republika Srpska must cooperate with whoever governs Serbia, while Index carries the same passage the other way around, as a message that the new authorities in Serbia have no choice but to cooperate with the ruling structures of Republika Srpska.

He also looked back at Aleksandar Vucic and earlier relations, and made his verdict on current cooperation conditional on the new authorities in Belgrade:

“We used to say that our cooperation with Serbia was at its best in Vucic’s time. I would like to be able to say now that our cooperation with the Student List is the best, that it surpasses even relations with Vucic, but we’ll see.”

He added that there are “plenty of rational people” in Serbia and that Republika Srpska will not take part in shaping the government in Belgrade, but will accept the will of the Serbian Parliament and the people of Serbia.

Where is Dodik travelling this week?

Dodik confirmed that he is travelling to the United States for the CPAC conference in Florida, which runs from November 4 to 7, with a gala dinner on November 5 at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. He said he will meet congressmen, senators and other interlocutors. Index wrote about his trip as early as October 31, citing the American magazine The Atlantic, which links the visit to Republika Srpska’s lobbying campaign in Washington. It is not known whether he will meet Trump in Florida. He returns on Saturday, and on November 11 he travels to Chicago for the consecration of Serbian Orthodox Church buildings.