Milorad Dodik, the leader of Bosnia’s Serb entity, Republika Srpska, has said he’s willing to hit pause on recent separatist legislation—but there’s a catch. The outspoken politician insists he’ll only do so if international envoy Christian Schmidt, who oversees Bosnia’s fragile post-war peace deal, withdraws his recent decisions.
Dodik’s remarks, made Thursday on social media, come amid growing tensions over laws passed in Republika Srpska that challenge the authority of Bosnia’s federal institutions. These moves landed the 66-year-old leader in legal hot water. Earlier this year, he was sentenced to a year in prison and barred from public office for six years after ignoring rulings from Schmidt and allowing legislation that blocks federal judicial bodies from operating in the RS region. Dodik, defiant as ever, has refused to appear before the court and now faces a federal arrest warrant.
In his post, Dodik didn’t mince words: “The only way out of this crisis is to roll back Schmidt’s unilateral decisions,” he wrote. If that happens, he added, Republika Srpska would be ready to temporarily suspend the controversial laws adopted by its National Assembly.
The standoff is the latest in a string of clashes between Dodik and the Office of the High Representative, which was set up to implement the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended Bosnia’s bloody war in the 1990s. The country remains deeply divided, with two semi-autonomous regions—a Bosniak-Croat federation and the Serb-led RS—tied together by a fragile central government.
Dodik has long criticized Schmidt’s role, accusing him of overstepping and interfering in RS affairs. This latest offer signals he may be open to dialogue, but only on his terms.
Whether Schmidt or the broader international community will engage on those terms, though, is another matter entirely. For now, Bosnia’s constitutional crisis remains in limbo, teetering between escalation and uneasy compromise.
