PEOPLE BACKED THOSE MOST CONSISTENT IN FIGHT TO PRESERVE SRPSKA, WHILE SDS FACES BLEAK FUTURE

BANJA LUKA, OCTOBER 7 /SRNA/ - A professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Istočno Sarajevo Radomir Lukić said that voters in the general elections backed SNSD and parties they believe are the most consistent in fighting to preserve Republika Srpska and its competences, while SDS, which is no longer the strongest opposition party, faces a very difficult task of remaining on the political scene.

Lukić told SRNA that the future of SDS under its current leadership is not bright unless the party genuinely reorganizes itself, turns inward and understands what its core is.

"Obviously, a kind of change has taken place in this regard, but it is nevertheless the result of the SDS's years-long foolish policy of constantly handing over its credibility and political capital to others, bringing into its ranks people who never belonged there," he said.

Lukić explained that he was primarily referring to the political pact with PDP, the inclusion of Nebojša Vukanović, president of the List for Justice and Order, in the parliamentary ranks through SDS, and similar moves.

"All of these were inept, foolish, ill-considered, hasty and catastrophic outcomes for SDS," said Lukić, who was once a member of SDS and president of the First SDS.

Lukić pointed out that SDS has been eroding what remains of its historical capacity and role for years, but also stressed that it should not be forgotten that the backbone of the party was broken by post-war political and other pressure from foreigners and the so-called international community.

"However, it is problematic that SDS itself continued to erode that historical legacy through poor personnel policy. We have reached the point where there is not a single truly prominent, wise and historically significant figure in SDS today, as was the case with the party in the 1990s," Lukić said.

He noted that the result of all this is that SDS is now the second-strongest opposition party, having ceded its voters to PDP, Draško Stanivuković's current movement, and Vukanović.

"I believe, unfortunately, that this will continue with this SDS because its people understand very little about domestic and foreign policy," Lukić said.

He said that the results of the general elections show that attempts by part of the international community to break SNSD, the leading party in the executive and legislative authorities of Republika Srpska, by excluding Milorad Dodik from political life have failed.

"I believe that the results of the general elections produced outcomes unexpected for some of the leading Western members of the so-called international community, but expected by the people of Srpska. It has been shown that these are different times from those after the war, when the same international community broke the backbone of the SDS, then by far the strongest party of that period, and forcibly sought to distort the will of the people," Lukić said.