Manuel Sarrazin, Germany's special envoy for the Western Balkans, spoke for N1 on Thursday and said that the new BiH coalition at the state level should be given a chance to show what it can do. "We will evaluate them by what they do," he said. When asked whether a situation might happen in Germany where after the closing of the polls, the Election Law would be changed, as the High Representative Christian Schmidt did in BiH, to which he answered "honestly - no".

The Special Envoy rejected the BiH Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic’s statements that “today the Brussels is not talking about [Republika Srpska entity President Milorad] Dodik, but about the radicalization of Bosniaks”, pointing out that when “we talk about radicalization and the threat of terrorism, we don’t think that BiH should be particularly emphasized.”

He was asked to comment on Bosnian politicians who decorated Russian President Vladimir Putin, who do not recognize the state and do not even hide this, and who insult the international community, to which the German diplomat said:

“I'm not going to say whether I'm optimistic or not, but I'm just going to say – we're going to judge them by what they do. I think that the future of the Western Balkans is in the EU.”

How do you explain that such leaders were not punished or sanctioned, even though the Office of the High Representative (OHR) has the authority to do so?

“Germany and I personally do not agree at all with the positions of Dodik and the Republika Srpska (RS) entity. We want the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to call the war in Ukraine by its right name. Germany has been of the opinion for a long time that sanctions should absolutely be imposed, but there is no majority in the EU [for such a thing]. We have projects worth € 105 million that were supposed to happen in the RS but they were stopped because of our concerns about secession announcements,” Sarrazin said.

He pointed out that Germany supports the High Representative Christian Schmidt and that they support his work

Can a situation where German Election Law would be changed on election day happen in Germany? Are those the European standards?

“The situation in Germany is such we don’t have an OHR and our election laws are something that our parliaments pass. We also need to change the law on elections, it is not a simple topic there either, but it’s not decided by Schmidt like here in BiH,” he said.

When pressed to give a direct answer whether an Election Law could be imposed upon the closing of the polls, the German diplomat said:

“Honestly – no, that's a really deep question.”

Sarrazin was also asked to comment on the idea to criminalize defamation and introduce defamation into the Criminal Code of the RS entity, which would introduce huge fines for guilty parties.

“I heard about that idea and we are really worried. I will inform myself about it in more detail, but at the moment I can’t give you any more details because I have to talk to my colleagues. But certainly, any pressure on journalists and NGOs is something we consider to be very critical. We see that these negative tendencies exist in the region as well,” the German envoy told N1.

Speaking about the claims made by the head of BiH diplomacy, that Brussels is speaking about the radicalization of Bosniaks, Sarrazin said that the German Government does indeed talk about the RS President Milorad Dodik in Brussels, the seat of the EU.

“We are also talking about cooperation and friendship between BiH and Germany. I am convinced that the people of the RS are great friends of Germany. I don't know what you mean when you talk about the radicalization of Bosniaks. When we talk about radicalization and the danger of terrorism, I don’t think that BiH should be particularly emphasized. We have excellent cooperation with the security authorities in Bosnia,” he concluded.