Dodik's Political Survival: As Long As He Creates the Narrative, He Is Not Marginalized

(Patria) - Milorad Dodik's call for representatives from Republika Srpska in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH to reject the budget proposal for 2025 once again confirms that the SNSD leader has not been eliminated from the political scene, regardless of all the processes and sanctions against him.

On the contrary, he still sets the pace and sets political traps.

With this move, Dodik is actually placing the burden on the opposition parties from Republika Srpska. In the atmosphere shaped by SNSD's powerful media machinery, any potential different vote by opposition representatives automatically places them among the "treacherous options".

Thus, instead of discussing the actual content of the budget, a political framework is created in which loyalty to Dodik is presented as loyalty to the "national interest".

Precisely on the eve of the elections for the president of Republika Srpska, Dodik is using the BiH budget as a testing platform, those who are not with him are against "Serb interests".

This is the narrative that allows him to continue dominating the political scene, while the opposition, even when it has arguments, remains on the defensive and under pressure of labels.

Dodik thus shows that his power lies not only in the number of delegates and representatives he controls, but also in his ability to create political stories and force opponents to play on his field.

And, he also noted, because if the Budget passes the House of Representatives, he threatened with three delegates in the House of Peoples of the BiH PA, which translates to BiH remaining on temporary financing for some time longer.

(A. Čorbo-Zećo)