If SDA hadn't agreed to the IMF loan, citizens would now be overthrowing Dodik, instead of him threatening BiH

By Armin Aljović

The President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, is convinced that there will be a standstill at all levels of government in BiH if Bosniak political leaders do not accept the initiative of SNSD and HDZ BiH to adopt a new law on the Constitutional Court of BiH.

With the new law, Dodik and Čović want to 'kick out' foreign judges from this institution.

Dodik wants to reduce anyone's influence on the situation in BiH at all costs, while simultaneously consolidating his own position. It is easiest for him to agree with himself, and with Čović. Any third party represents a problem for them. He clearly told reporters in Gradiška that Bosniak leaders would receive the draft law on the Constitutional Court and that they would "have a lot of trouble saying they don't accept it." And there are countless ways Dodik can block progress in BiH, which is already not significant.

The opposition blames Bakir Izetbegović for Dodik's arrogant behavior. A few months ago, the BiH Presidency member and SDA president personally revived Dodik with an IMF loan. Without the loan, Dodik's regime could not have lasted until the end of this summer. The government's warehouses were scraped clean. Milorad Dodik's private accounts are his private accounts, and he did not intend to put them at the service of the citizens of Republika Srpska, even though the citizens filled them.

Then, on July 31, Izetbegović sat down with Dodik in a restaurant near Sarajevo and agreed to a new IMF loan of a full 1.1 billion KM. It was the oxygen Dodik breathed in just when he thought he would declare capitulation. The ground was hard, the sky was high, and even the Russians had betrayed him.

After the meeting, Izetbegović stated that everything can be agreed upon with Dodik.

A few weeks later, Dodik denied this goodwill with an unconstitutional referendum on celebrating January 9, the continuation of blocking BiH on its path to NATO, and so on. On Friday, he met with Dragan Čović again in Istočno Sarajevo and announced new problems for BiH. As if there weren't already too many problems in BiH.

According to Dodik, amendments to the Law on the Constitutional Court of BiH mean that politics will have control over the highest judicial instance in the country. This is not foreign to Dodik, as courts in the BiH entity of Republika Srpska function in exactly that way.

Ramiz Salkić went a step further today. He said that by bringing the Constitutional Court of BiH under control, Dodik and Čović want to create an environment for the formation of a third entity and lead Bosnia and Herzegovina towards dissolution.

If Izetbegović had not agreed to the IMF loan at the end of July this year, some of the most eminent analysts in the country estimate that instead of Dodik tearing BiH apart, we would now be watching disenfranchised and hungry citizens of Republika Srpska overthrowing Dodik's government.