Gratz: Referendum is a rerun of SNSD's 2011 play.

Federal MP Dennis Gratz from Our Party reacted to the announcements of a referendum in RS and the political campaign currently being conducted by the ruling majority led by SNSD, aiming to push economic and social problems into the background, reports the Patria News Agency.

-The legal framework of judicial institutions has been confirmed by the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH. It was adopted with entity voting and passed both houses, therefore it cannot be questioned in the entity assembly.

This was unequivocally stated by the American Embassy and the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), and after the referendum is likely challenged in the Council of Peoples of RS and the Constitutional Court, it will become clear that this was just another one of Dodik's empty stories, said Gratz.

-The RS Government has not adopted the Strategy for Justice Sector Reform for the period 2014-2018, which is a bigger blow to the judiciary than any referendum, as it jeopardizes access to European Union funds from which additional staff in prosecutor's offices and courts are financed. We warned about this earlier, however, there is a complete absence of international pressure to resolve this.

The political essence of the referendum story is channeling social anger into nationalistic anger, after the RS entity, precisely Dodik's rule, has brought it to the brink of economic collapse. For example, at today's session, the majority refused to discuss the electricity price increase, which, unlike the referendum demagoguery, is something that will surely have concrete consequences for citizens' wallets, concluded Gratz.