Republika Srpska

Pre-election fever was in the air of the Balkans too, as politicians in Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia geared up for elections taking place over the year.

As tough and unpopular economic and social reforms hung Bosnia's politicians like a Sword of Damocles, they jealously watched Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo stealing attention with their respective crises.

Bosnian Serbs threatened on Feb. 17 to secede in a bid to rid Bosnia's top court of foreign judges, risking another political crisis.    
The parliament in Republika Srpska -- which shares some central institutions with the Muslim-Croat Federation -- gave a 60-day deadline for reform of Bosnia's Constitutional Court.    

Kalinic pointed out that this reminds him of a time 30 years ago when Serbs uniquely, regardless of their different party affiliation, made the historic decision to establish Republika Srpska.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has repeated demands for a referendum on the status of the Serb-led entity in Bosnia, Republika Srpska, after meeting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade.

Milomir Savcic, the president of the Veterans' Organisation of Republika Srpska, pleaded not guilty at the Bosnian state court on Monday to assisting the commission of genocide in July 1995.

"This is a totally fictional indictment. I do not feel guilty. I plead not guilty," he said.

As previously reported from his cabinet, Vucic will attend the opening of the Komercijalna Banka branch in Drvar, visit the Health Center and attend the opening of the Jumko factory.
Serbian government has allocated € 32 million for various projects over the last two years, with the aim to help the Serb population in Republika Srpska.

Bakir Izetbegovic, the leader of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA and a member of the upper house of Bosnia's parliament, said on Tuesday that the leadership of the Bosnian Serbs will ultimately see the security value in joining NATO.

The Bosnian state prosecution issued a series of indictments on Tuesday charging wartime former members of the Bosnian Army, the Bosnian Serb Army, the Croatian Defence Council and Serb-led Territorial Defence and reservist police forces with a variety of crimes.

Several thousand people gathered in Banja Luka, the administrative centre of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, RS, on Thursday night for two rival rallies, one a protest against the RS authorities and the other a counter-protest in support of RS institutions.

The Assembly of Republika Srpska had endorsed Dodik's interpretation that a document called the "Reform Program" adopted by the BiH Presidency on November 19th does not mean consent to continue BiH's accession to NATO, but merely a plan of measures to be implemented in terms of establishing co-operation with this military alliance.