Bosnian Serb leadership will “most likely” condition the government formation at the state level with the dismissal of foreign judges from the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, announced Serb Presidency member Milorad Dodik.

“We will also, like some others, start conditioning the government formation,” he told the local Alternative Television (ATV).

The leader of the Serb strongest party, the SNSD, recalled that the Bosniak leadership gathered around the SDA party first started conditioning the government formation with the NATO accession which is, he stressed, unacceptable for the Serbs.

“The Serb side will in the following days most likely condition the government formation at the state level with having the foreign judges removed from the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Dodik.

For years, Dodik and the Serb leadership have been advocating for the removal of foreign judges from the Constitutional Court who are selected from the European Court of Human Rights after consultations with Bosnia's Presidency. Three are selected in each of Bosnia's two semi-autonomous regions, Republika Srpska (RS) and Federation (FBiH).

Now, Dodik is bringing the topic up and linking it with the state government formation, which has been in the stalemate for months due to political disagreements on the country's NATO path.

The Serb leader wants the government, formally the Council of Ministers and its Chairman, to be named without considering the SDA's condition, the adoption of the Annual National Programme (ANP), a document that would move the country closer to the NATO.

The ongoing negative processes in Bosnia, including the lack of the basic institutions, said Dodik, show that “this country does not have to exist.”

“On the other hand, the Republika Srpska's institutions are functioning, the political situation is stable and the society is not divided by any means, although some are trying to represent it that way,” Dodik told local media.