Bosnian Serb Parties Mull Dodik’s Call for Unity

Opposition parties in Republika Srpska are pondering a proposal from the Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik for them all to cooperate at the state level – although some fear it is a political trick.

Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of Bosnia’s state presidency and leader of the ruling party in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, RS, on Tuesday urged Serbian parties in the country to unite and work together at the state level.

Dodik met the heads of the two main opposition parties in the RS, the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, and the Party of Democratic Progress, PDP, to urge them all to work as one.

At meetings with Borislav Borenovic from the PDP and Vukota Govedarica from the SDS, Dodik said his own party, the Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, was “ready to jointly enter the ruling coalition [with them]” at the state level.

He added that a “united Serbian representation” in Bosnia’s state institutions would better serve the interests of Republika Srpska.

At the meetings, Dodik offered both the SDS and PDP positions in the Council of Ministers, Bosnia’s state government, Dodik, Borenovic, and Govedarica all confirmed.

Borenovic said the PDP had declined the offer, as it did not see the offer of state ministerial posts as “the most important thing”.

But Govedarica said the SDS would review the SNSD’s offer and give its answer in a week. He expressed concerns that the offer might be “a political trick”.

Several Bosnian Serb officials from both the SNSD and the SDS, on condition of anonymity, told BIRN that Dodik had a clear political motivation for making the offer.

They said Dodik wanted to build a common “Serbian political front” as a cover to enable the SNSD to agree to Bosnia activating its NATO Membership Action Plan, MAP – which NATO offered Bosnia at the end of 2018.

They said Dodik was concerned that activation of the MAP would anger his Russian allies as well as many Bosnian Serbs, who are mostly against joining NATO and insist on the country maintaining its current military neutrality.

Since last October’s general elections, Bosniak parties have blocked the formation of a new state government in Bosnia, conditioning it on activation of the MAP.

In the same elections, the SNSD effectively annihilated the remaining opposition parties in the RS, and it is now undisputed master of the entity, as well as one of the strongest parties at state level.

However, Dodik fears that accepting the MAP could turn his ally Russia, as well as many voters, against his party.

But building a joint Serbian platform would help to neutralize any eventual negative political effects coming from activating the MAP, sources explained.

A complicating factor is that some opposition leaders in the RS fear that joining the SNSD at state level would further undermine them.

Since the October elections, numerous officials from the two main opposition parties, as well as other opposition parties, have joined the SNSD bloc in exchange for positions in various institutions and public companies./Birn