To believe the former president of Republika Srpska (RS), Milorad Dodik, in the story about a referendum would be the same as believing in Santa Claus, said the president of the People’s Front, Jelena Trivic.
The National Assembly of RS (NARS) on August 23rd adopted the decision on calling a referendum, which was supposed to be held on Saturday, October 25th, but Dodik announced a postponement.
The referendum question should have read “Do you accept the decisions of the unelected foreigner Christian Schmidt and the rulings of the unconstitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) pronounced against the president of the RS, as well as the decision of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of BiH on taking away the mandate of the president of the RS”.
Trivic says that to everyone it is completely clear why there is no referendum, that is, a “series of referendums” as Dodik had announced.
“SNSD and Dodik capitulated in the NARS last Saturday, trampled everything, handed over property for deciding to the Office of the High Representative (OHR), gave legitimacy to the Constitutional Court, the next step is an accelerated path into NATO. All that is part of the package of Dodik’s capitulation. The decisions of the NARS were welcomed by the embassy of the United States (U.S.), the Office of the OHR, the ambassador of the United Kingdom (UK) in BiH… With that, everything was said,” said Trivic.
According to her words, two are the key red lines for RS, which Dodik crossed: property and NATO.
“And that is classic betrayal of Serbian national interests,” said Trivic.
As she says, “all the hollow Dodik story about the West he hates” and the foreigners he fights against, was extinguished in 24 hours by the votes of his majority in the NARS.
“That is why it is very clear that there will be no referendum. Obviously, for Dodik, the question of the referendum was only a field for trade with foreigners because he persistently trades Serbian national interests for the sake of preserving his political position. All the pounding on the chest is now frozen, and RS is weakened by the last moves in the NARS. BiH is strengthened,” said Trivic.
She emphasizes that Dodik has always been a player of foreign interests, mostly Croatian and especially Western.
“Serbian national interests for him are imagination and abstraction, and the last developments have completely shown that,” said Trivic.
