Austrian Foreign Ministry summons BiH Ambassador over Dodik's statements

According to Austrian media, Dodik criticized Meinl-Reisinger's visit to Sarajevo in interviews, reportedly telling Austrian outlets that the country has "idiots for ministers."

“When a minister who has been in office for just a few days travels to Sarajevo and succumbs to the atmosphere of back-patting there, it shows that Austria also has unserious ministers,” he said, according to ORF.

Speaking to the online edition of the news magazine Profil, the 66-year-old politician from the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats went further:

"The Austrian foreign minister probably thinks she belongs to a superior race. She doesn’t. I will do everything to ensure that our Serbian community in Austria gets organized and expresses its will.”

The Austrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying:

“In light of recent statements by Milorad Dodik, president of the Republika Srpska entity, the ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dodik’s actions threaten the stability, constitutional order, and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Helmut Brandstätter, head of the NEOS delegation in the European Parliament, already stated that Dodik’s verbal attacks primarily harm the Serbs themselves. “It shows he’s with his back against the wall,” Brandstätter told APA, calling Dodik’s insults “unbearable” and “unbelievably insolent.”