After a first-instance court in Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Bosnian Serb Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán took to his X account in defense of the Serb leader:
“The political witch hunt against President Milorad Dodik is a sad example of the weaponization of the legal system aimed at a democratically elected leader. If we want to safeguard stability in the Western Balkans, this is not the way forward!” he posted.
Dodik has been sentenced for going against orders of an international peace-keeping envoy and suspending rulings by the country’s constitutional court to one year in prison. He has also been banned from holding public office for six years.
Dodik has systematically been pulling out of the federal institutions and legal frameworks of Bosnia and Herzegovina, implementing bans on its judiciary and intelligence agency.
He warned that if he was convicted, he would force through a referendum on Republika Srpska’s separation from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as eject Bosnia’s court and prosecutor from the republic’s territory. He would also withdraw all of Republika Srpska’s represenatives from institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The president of the Serb Republic, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina that serves as home to most of the Serbs in that country, claims the charges were politically motivated and that there was no legal basis for his conviction.
“The Bosnia and Herzegovina that was imagined no longer exists, and the Bosnian Serb parliament will pass new laws, for example, the federal prosecutor’s office and the (federal) court will no longer be able to operate in the territory of the Republika Srpska,” said Dodik, as quoted by Mandiner.
Orbán is a long-time defender of Dodik and has blocked attempts by the EU to sanction him. Dodik has already been hit with sanctions by the United States and the United Kingdom for his alleged efforts against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the autumn of 2023, Hungary took over projects in the Republika Srpska that had been abandoned by Germany after that country cut funding due to the republic’s intention to secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Both Orbán and Putin have received the highest honor of the Republika Srpska, Putin in early 2023 and Orbán in the spring of 2024.
In his acceptance speech, Orbán said: “We Serbs and Hungarians live alongside each other. In international politics, I have always stood up for the Serbs, because over the decades I have developed the conviction that international policy towards the Serbs has been unfair and unjust.”
One German analyst claimed in 2024 that “Orbán is more destructive in the region than Putin.”
