Milorad Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska, has claimed that his recent legal issues are politically motivated, drawing parallels between his case and that of Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally party.
“Marine Le Pen was convicted because she is a threat to a system that doesn’t know how to lose. Just like in my case, her sentence was not about the law—it was about politics. She, like me, is paying the price for having the people’s support, which they cannot defeat at the polls,” Dodik wrote on X today.
Political Persecution or Legal Justice?
Dodik accused the courts of being “tools of those who fear democracy” and of trying to “erase” him and Le Pen through judicial rulings rather than defeating them through fair elections. He ended his statement with “Je suis Marine.”
Le Pen was recently found guilty by a Paris court of misusing European Parliament funds, resulting in a five-year ban from holding public office. Meanwhile, Dodik was sentenced in February to one year in prison and a six-year ban from public office for refusing to implement decisions from the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Since March 27, after attending a conference on antisemitism in Israel, Dodik’s whereabouts have been unknown, and he has only communicated through social media. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has since requested Interpol to issue a Red Notice against him, citing his inaccessibility to judicial authorities.
