PM Orbán’s ally loses power in Bosnia: will Hungarian TEK agents interfere?

A Bosnia and Herzegovina court on Monday rejected as unfounded an appeal filed by the Republika Srpska president against the Central Election Commission’s decision to revoke his mandate. In March, 78 Hungarian Counter Terrorism Centre officers arrived to the Republika Srpska.

Referendum on position

The court said the ruling, adopted in a closed session, upheld the commission’s Aug. 6 decision to terminate Milorad Dodik’s mandate under Bosnia’s election law. Dodik’s appeal was dismissed as unsubstantiated, it added, noting that the full decision is available on the court’s website.

Earlier Monday in Banja Luka, Dodik announced that a referendum on his position would be held in Republika Srpska at the end of September, framing the vote as an expression of the Serbian entity’s will and a demand to return to the framework of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement.

His remarks came shortly after Republika Srpska Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic resigned, paving the way for the formation of a new government. Dodik thanked Viskovic for his service and said he would be named head of the entity’s highways company.

Mandate revoked after prison sentence

The electoral commission revoked Dodik’s mandate after he was given a one-year prison sentence and a six-year ban on holding public office earlier this month for refusing in 2023 to enforce decisions issued by High Representative Christian Schmidt, Bosnia’s international overseer for the Dayton agreement.

Dodik has rejected both the court and electoral commission rulings, vowing that Republika Srpska will resist “external interventions” and calling on EUFOR, the EU’s peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, to position itself on the entity’s boundary “if necessary.”

Lack of respect

Reacting to the latest decision, Dodik said on the US social media company X that he would not accept what he called “disrespect for the Constitution and the people’s will.”

“They did not respect the Constitution of BiH (Bosnia and Herzegovina), they did not respect the Constitution of Republika Srpska, they did not respect the law, and I am supposed to respect their disrespect for everything! I will not respect it. I will respect the will of the Serbian people,” he said.

Accusing institutions and international actors of arrogance, Dodik added: “You were arrogant and haughty, yet you expect me to be submissive. I will not be. I am the president of Republika Srpska, and you can write whatever you want. The people elected me, a foreign government will not remove me. You go your way, we will go ours. I hope our paths do not cross.”

Bosnia and Herzegovina is made up of two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, as well as the autonomous Brcko District.

What will happen with the Hungarian peacekeepers and the TEK agents?

As hvg.hu pointed out, Dodik has a very good relationship with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. They met in early August and even in January before that. The Hungarian Counter Terrorism Centre (TEK) sent 78 agents to Republika Srpska in March. Initially, they told the border guards that the unit would arrive unarmed. Later, they informed them that they would be armed. Hungarian media wrote at the time that the unit had arrived only to help Dodik escape in case of an emergency.

Orbán said in August that Dodik was convicted only because he refused to behave as the puppet of Brussels. Therefore, Hungary cannot accept the decision of the Bosnian court.

In March, Bosnia and Herzegovina officially requested the replacement of Hungarian troops within the EUFOR peacekeeping mission in the country. Željko Komšić, a member of the Bosnian Presidency, addressed this request to Antonio Costa, President of the European Council, seeking the substitution of Hungarian forces with those from another EU member state, excluding Croatia due to the Dayton Peace Agreement. This is because the Presidency believes Hungary interfered in Bosnia’s internal affairs.

Read also:

• Bosnia-Herzegovina officially requests replacement of Hungarian peacekeepers in the country
• Will Hungarian armed forces intervene in Bosnia-Herzegovina to help Serbian leader Dodik? Here’s the government’s reaction

Click for more news on the Western Balkans.