RS lawmaker: Opposition bloc can start working properly now

N1

The departure of the National Democratic Movement (NDP) and the Doboj branch of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) from the biggest opposition bloc in Republika Srpska (RS,) Bosnia’s Serb-dominated part, is good because now the opposition can start working properly, independent RS lawmaker Adam Sukalo told N1 on Friday.

Dragan Cavic, the NDP leader, said on Wednesday that his party is leaving the biggest opposition bloc in the Republika Srpska (RS) entity, the Alliance for Victory, because “it doesn’t even exist anymore.”

“The Alliance for Victory was an election coalition whose candidates lost, unfortunately,” Cavic said, adding that his party had already contacted the newly elected Serb member of Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency, Milorad Dodik, to discuss the formation of the government.

Dodik is the leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) and he will be swapping his post of President of the Serb-dominated semi-autonomous RS entity in Bosnia for the post of the Bosnian Serb member of the state Presidency.

For Sukalo, Cavic’s statement did not come as a surprise. He said that Cavic has throughout the past year behaved as if the opposition bloc he was part of does not exist.

“I don’t want to spend time discussing those political losers who have cheated their voters and party members,” Sukalo said.

He said that he is optimistic, as only now conditions have become favourable for “bringing down the regime.”

“Those who formally presented themselves as bringing down the regime have secretly been discussing with Dodik how to destroy the Alliance from within,” he said.

He said he is happy that he is part of the political group together with the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) which has proclaimed it will not cooperate with Dodik.

Sukalo received 21,000 votes in his run for Bosnia’s Parliament in the October 7 election, which was not enough to secure a lawmaker seat, but he said he is nevertheless satisfied with the result.

He said he thinks that Dodik’s main goal is to secure a two-thirds majority in the RS National Assembly so that he can change the RS Constitution.

“What was Milorad Dodik thinking? In which way does he want to change the RS Constitution? I can only speculate on this,” he said, but added that he thinks the Bosnian Serb leader is trying to establish an “autocratic regime to the extent to which the law allows it.”