<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Spanish Government has called on Sunday for “respect for the institutions in the face of the growing tension in Bosnia and Herzegovina” and has warned that “the recent actions of the authorities of the Republika Srpska” are “contrary to the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina” and put at risk “the territorial integrity and stability of the country, which are fundamental for the entire Western Balkan region”.</strong></h4> “We call for full respect for the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and for the judicial decisions of the Constitutional Court adopted on Friday 7th”, declared the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement. “We urge all political actors to reduce the tension and to resume dialogue, for the benefit of all the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, it concluded. On Friday, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina suspended several laws passed by the Parliament of Republika Srpska (RS) to prevent the functioning of state authorities in the entity in this Serb-majority territory. The laws were adopted at the end of February by the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, after being sentenced by the state court in Sarajevo to one year in prison and six years of disqualification for disobeying the decisions of the International High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, the German Christian Schmidt. Specifically, the Bosnian Serb president adopted, and the Parliament confirmed, a series of laws prohibiting the actions of the Prosecutor's Office, the State Court, the High Judicial Council, the central police agency SIPA and the intelligence service of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the territory of Republika Srpska, as well as a law in 2023 according to which the decisions of the High Representative will not be published in the Official Gazette of the Serbian entity. All of these laws were suspended on Friday by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but Dodik has rejected the ruling, which he has described as “worthy of the Politburo of the USSR”. Milorad Dodik, who defends the independence of the Republika Srpska from the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina - thereby violating the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords - does not recognise Schmidt as High Representative because his election has not been endorsed by Russia and China in the UN Security Council.
