Politics

Trump Allies Cruise To Victory In Balkan Country’s Election

Screenshot/Fox News/Rumble

BANJA LUKA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA — A pro-Trump party in Bosnia and Herzegovina easily retained one of the country’s high offices despite its leader’s previous conviction, as well as considerable problems with the Balkan nation’s new voting technology.

Noted Trump ally and former Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), which dominates the Serb-majority entity, saw his party win big in Sunday’s election. Preliminary results published by the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina showed Dodik ally Željka Cvijanović securing another term as the Serb member of Bosnia’s three-person presidency in a landslide.

Cvijanović previously served as both prime minister and president of Republika Srpska, according to her official Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina biography.

Dodik has repeatedly praised Trump for his support of Christian sovereignty worldwide. The autonomous entity he once led is one of two that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina under the U.S.-brokered Dayton Peace Agreement, alongside the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to the country’s Dayton-established constitution.

“If it hadn’t been for Donald Trump’s magnificent victory and for his removal of the detested Biden structures, we would today be politically dead,” Dodik said at a rally celebrating his party’s victory, Bloomberg reported. “But thanks to a new political environment, we are now political winners.”

Dodik has repeatedly stressed that his allegiance to Trump stretches back to the president’s first run for office.

“We never hesitated to support him and his policies,” Dodik told the DCNF. “And then in the second campaign, due to the election theft by the Biden team, they did not cheat just on him; they cheated on the rest of the world. And we were really glad to see him coming back to power.”

For Dodik, Trump’s return has therefore coincided with the lifting of American sanctions, the July departure of Christian Schmidt — former international high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina — and now another sweeping electoral victory for Dodik’s political movement.

Dodik has gone further than simply praising Trump. He has explicitly called on the president to play a central role in determining Republika Srpska’s political future.

Republika Srpska already possesses extensive political authority under the Dayton system, with Bosnia’s constitution reserving governmental functions not expressly assigned to national institutions to the entities. Dodik, however, wants Republika Srpska to ultimately become an internationally recognized independent country.

“I call upon them; I beg them,” Dodik told the DCNF through a translator during his interview in the presidential palace. “If they could only allocate five minutes of their precious time to consider the situation here, it would all be clear to them.”

“I think that we deserve that,” Dodik said through the translator. “But if Donald Trump fails to do that, I will still continue to support him.”

Dodik has insisted that any attempt by Republika Srpska to leave Bosnia and Herzegovina should occur peacefully, arguing that American support could fundamentally alter the political calculus surrounding independence.

“Those are the only conditions how we would prefer. We would not like any conflict,” Dodik said through his translator. “But it would suffice if the Americans say, ‘Yes, go for it,’ because it would only be justice. And no one should use any force. Do you think that Muslims would dare use any force? Then they wouldn’t.”

Cvijanović appeared to move in the same direction shortly before voters went to the polls. During a campaign rally, she said Republika Srpska needs “the right to a referendum,” according to a translation of her speech.

Dodik has also sought to maintain relations with both Washington and Moscow, rejecting the premise that Republika Srpska must choose between the United States and Russia.

“Many say to me— they say it’s impossible,” Dodik said, according to a translated transcript. “What is ‘impossible’? Is it impossible for us to have open doors to America and keep the doors open to Russia?”

Whatever happens next, Dodik has made clear that he believes Trump now has an opportunity to leave a permanent mark on the Balkans.

“And that would be the great, historical act of President Trump in the Balkans: to support our liberty, freedom and independence,” Dodik previously told the DCNF during his first interview. “In the history of Serbs, then, he would become one of the most prominent figures.”

The relationship takes on added significance given the extraordinary political events that removed Dodik from the presidency of Republika Srpska.

Schmidt used his authority in July 2023 to unilaterally amend Bosnia’s criminal code. The amendment made failure to implement a decision of the high representative punishable by between six months and five years in prison, according to Schmidt’s original Office of the High Representative decision.

Dodik subsequently became the most prominent political figure convicted under the provision.

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted Dodik in February 2025 of failing to implement decisions of the high representative, sentencing him to one year in prison and barring him from serving as Republika Srpska president for six years. An appeals panel later upheld the conviction.

Dodik and his allies have compared the campaign against him to the legal battles Trump faced in the United States.

“Basically, they did to him what they wanted to do to Trump, which is weaponize the justice system, come at him with all these cases to turn him into a criminal in order to prevent him from participating in political life of the country, and so he couldn’t be re-elected,” Obrad Kesić, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s ambassador and head of mission to the European Union, previously told the DCNF.

The Central Election Commission formally terminated Dodik’s presidential mandate on Aug. 6, 2025. Dodik had been elected president of Republika Srpska by voters in the 2022 general election.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control removed Dodik from its sanctions list on Oct. 29, 2025, along with a series of other Republika Srpska-linked individuals and entities, according to the agency’s official sanctions notice.

Schmidt also left office this summer. The Peace Implementation Council appointed American diplomat Louis Crishock acting high representative effective July 1, the same day Schmidt’s resignation became effective, according to the Office of the High Representative.

Scrutiny of Dodik’s removal also reached Washington. Republican Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy asked the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in an Aug. 31 letter, exclusively obtained by the DCNF, to review allegations that Christian Schmidt and members of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Central Election Commission interfered with the democratic process in Republika Srpska.

The victory came despite serious problems surrounding Bosnia’s first nationwide use of biometric voter identification, electronic ballot scanners and rapid electronic transmission of results.

Problems emerged almost immediately. The Central Election Commission acknowledged on election morning that some polling stations failed to open on time because of problems with ballot scanners.

“There are ways to correct serious problems we had at several polling stations, and in that case we always can annul elections and repeat them in seven days,” Central Election Commission member Irena Hadžiabdić told the DCNF during voting. “But we have to take this decision a little bit later.”

The delays were particularly pronounced in Republika Srpska. Of the entity’s 1,957 polling stations, 201 had not opened by 7 a.m., according to the Republika Srpska Ministry of the Interior.

Turnout was also sluggish. The Central Election Commission reported that 916,269 people, or 26.88% of voters, had cast ballots at regular polling stations by 3 p.m.

The technical problems were not enough to stop SNSD from emerging victorious. Dodik declared victory for the party on election night, while preliminary results showed SNSD remaining the dominant political force in Republika Srpska.