Banja Luka Mayor Draško Stanivuković said an agreement among opposition parties in Republika Srpska is close, responding to SNSD leader Milorad Dodik’s claim that Stanivuković would be the “best candidate” for the ruling party to face in upcoming elections.
Stanivuković said Dodik’s remarks showed that the authorities were concerned about a possible united opposition.
“When I read statements like this, it is clear to me that we are on the right path,” Stanivuković wrote on X.
He said the ruling bloc fears opposition unity the most and that efforts to reach an agreement would continue.
“The agreement is close, and with it the end of SNSD’s decades-long rule,” he said.
Stanivuković also directly criticised Dodik’s long political record, accusing him of transferring key competencies from Republika Srpska to the state level of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of presiding over a period of major demographic decline.
Dodik earlier dismissed the opposition as a “hopeless case” and said SNSD would prefer Stanivuković as its challenger.