DODIK POINTS OUT IMPORTANCE OF REFERENDUM, STRUGGLE FOR SRPSKA CONTINUES

BANJA LUKA, SEPTEMBER 25 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said that, nine years after the referendum held on this day in 2016, the struggle for Srpska will continue in the referendum scheduled for October 25, 2025.

On the ninth anniversary of the first referendum in Republika Srpska, when residents of Srpska unequivocally expressed their wish to celebrate Republic Day on January 9, Dodik recalled the importance and strength of the people’s directly expressed will.

He said that on September 25, 2016, the people defended Republic Day, making it clear that no one can take away their statehood symbols or their right to celebrate the Republic’s birthday.

"The referendum was held as a form of our struggle for freedom and survival in these parts, not out of spite or adventurism, but out of the need for the people of Srpska to directly tell us how to proceed after the Constitutional Court of BiH declared January 9 unconstitutional," Dodik said.

He emphasized that the legacy of this first referendum is both a warning and a vow that no political elite must ever yield to attacks on January 9, because this date is not just a holiday but a symbol of freedom and existence of Republika Srpska.

"Nine years later, we continue the struggle for Srpska in the referendum on October 25, 2025, which will carry the same vow - that only the Serbs and the people of Republika Srpska will decide their own fate - and once again deliver a resounding NO to the colonial administration of Christian Schmidt," Dodik wrote on X.

According to him, decisions in Republika Srpska are made by the people and their elected government, since the will of the people is the highest law that must be respected.