An election poster for the snap election in the Serb Republic, in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, November 11, 2025. RAFAEL YAGHOBZADEH FOR LE MONDE
The appearance of democracy and the secrecy of the voting booth changed nothing, as in so many autocratic countries. It is not easy to get rid of the leader of a hegemonic political system. The challenge is even greater when the “godfather” of this Bosnian Serb system benefits, thanks to an alignment of the geopolitical stars, from both the historic and unconditional support of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the circumstantial backing of Donald Trump’s United States.
On a freezing morning following a snowy day, Milorad Dodik – the former president of Republika Srpska (RS), one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina along with the “Bosniak-Croat Federation,” who was removed from office by the courts – cast his ballot in the cultural center in his hometown of Laktasi, near Banja Luka. As usual, Dodik launched into tirades against Bosnia (“an impossible country”), against “Bosniak Muslims,” whom he had compared to “amoebas” during the campaign, against Sarajevo and against Europe, asserting that his candidate would win.
His wish was granted that evening, though the result was much tighter than expected. The stand-in candidate for the ousted president, former interior minister Sinisa Karan, 63, representing his Independent Social Democrats Party (SNSD), won, according to near-final results announced by the electoral commission, 50.89% of the votes, against 47.81% for the opposition coalition’s candidate. That contender, academic Branko Blanusa, 56, is a member of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) – the movement that founded the RS – whose wartime leader, Radovan Karadzic, is serving a life sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity.
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