Dodik Again Puffs Out His Chest: Easy to Treat Volleyball Players with Other People's Money

By Haris Ljevo

The President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, received Tiana Bošković and Brankica Mihajlović in Banja Luka, volleyball players from Republika Srpska who won a gold medal at the European Championship playing for the Serbian national team.

Dodik stated that he donated 20,000 KM each to Tiana Bošković, Brankica Mihajlović, and Jelena Blagojević, who was not present at the reception, and presented them with commemorative gifts.

- We will launch an initiative to incorporate into law the right to award national sports pensions to athletes who win medals with the Serbian national teams – said Dodik, adding that it is an honor for Republika Srpska to have volleyball players who play for the Serbian national team, which shows that RS has potential.

Tijana, Brankica, and Jelena are not at all aware that Dodik has brutally exploited them for cheap political purposes. They worked their whole lives for the gold European medal, shedding blood and sweat in training, only for Dodik to give them 20,000 KM each from the taxpayers' pockets, and earn political points for this move.

The economic situation in RS, as in the whole of BiH, is extremely difficult. Probably some of the closer or more distant family members of Tijana Bošković, Brankica Mihajlović, and Jelena Blagojević are barely making ends meet, have meager and irregular pensions, but Dodik has again reached into their pockets and gifted money to the golden volleyball players.

Through their success, Milorad Dodik is sending a message to young athletes in Republika Srpska to pack their bags and go to Serbia, because only by crossing the Drina river will they be able to count on some financial or other reward in the future. By staying in Laktaši, Zvornik, Trebinje, or Prijedor, they can win hundreds of medals, but they can forget about rewards and national pensions.

The national karate champion Maksim Avramović from Istočno Sarajevo will most likely not go to the World Championship in Spain because he does not have the 3,700 KM needed for the trip. Maksim will hardly receive support from Dodik, although he is also a successful athlete from RS, but he has only one problem. Unlike the golden volleyball players, he competes for his own country, not for a neighboring one.

Giving 20,000 KM each from the budget to the golden volleyball players at a time when workers are fighting for sheer survival, and some of them, like railway workers, are protesting by hunger strike for their rights, shows how corrupt politics has become.

Thousands of workers in RS work daily for meager wages without health and pension insurance. Many of them will find it very difficult to meet the conditions for retirement, but there will always be money in the budget to treat athletes who bring a medal to neighboring Serbia.

Of course, with budget money, not their own. Because it is easy to be generous at the expense of the people. The people's backbone is strong enough to endure everything without rebelling.