WE DO NOT REJECT CONSTITUTIONAL BiH, BUT WE REJECT LAWLESSNESS UNDER THE GUISE OF REFORM

BANJA LUKA, MAY 21 /SRNA/ – The President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik stated that what we are experiencing today in BiH is not unique to us, but part of a broader pattern that has recently emerged in many democracies around the world.

"What we are experiencing — this campaign of removing elected leaders, rewriting legal texts, delegitimizing public support — is part of a broader pattern that has recently appeared in many democracies around the world.

From Brazil to Hungary, from Romania to the United States, and yes, here in BiH, we are witnessing a very dangerous phenomenon. A new form of political warfare – the cancel culture – now applied not just to opinions, but to sovereignty itself. Aggression through unlawful means – the misuse of law to achieve political goals," Dodik said in his address to the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, which SRNA transmits in full:

"Let's be open. Sanctions have been imposed against me. They threaten to arrest me. They portray me as a villain, even though they are the ones rejecting dialogue and instead attempting to silence it. But I am not the real target.

The real target is the people who elected me. The citizens of Republika Srpska. Voters who, in free and fair elections, gave their trust to the vision of Srpska's sovereignty within BiH – not subordination to foreign dictates.

Allow me to say something I hope our critics will hear: You can impose sanctions on me. You can even ban me. You can try to imprison me – as you are already attempting. You can even try to kill me during arrest. But no leader of Republika Srpska – not today, not tomorrow, not ever – will renounce our right to this land, nor go against what was agreed upon in Dayton – that is, the Constitution of BiH.

And if that is the test of `suitability,` then you will never have a suitable Serb leader. Never. Because this is not about me. This is about the people’s mandate. This is about democracy.

Democracy does not mean we must agree with Brussels. Democracy does not mean accepting the latest interpretation of some unelected envoy. Democracy does not mean removing elected leaders because they are `inconvenient`. I was elected. The government was elected. The National Assembly was elected. What is being destroyed here is the right to defend ourselves.

Therefore, with due respect, I say to our friends in the EU and to every embassy that has spent more time drafting press releases than reading the Dayton Agreement: you do not define our democracy. Our people do. We say to them: read the BiH Constitution. It is not your job to interpret it – nor has that ever been the job of any high representative, especially not this illegitimate one.

Allow me to clearly repeat once more: We do not reject BiH – the constitutional, agreed-upon BiH. We do not threaten peace. We do not call for unilateral actions or secession.

We simply refuse to live in a system where the agreement we signed is altered by others, and the consequences imposed on us. That causes existential harm to us as a people. We say `no` – but not to peace – we say `no` to lawlessness disguised as reform. We say `no` to imposition, and we want cooperation. We reject impositions dressed up as democracy, without any democratic legitimacy.

We believe in dialogue. That is why we call for dialogue. We believe in Dayton. That is why we defend it. And we believe in democracy. That is why we are not afraid to speak.

The world cannot be shaped by silencing those who think differently.

BiH cannot be stabilized by erasing the autonomy of one of its two founding entities.

And our future cannot be built on the idea that only one political opinion is acceptable – the one approved by an unelected and legally unconfirmed foreign official."