STEVANDIĆ: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY MEMBERS WITHSTOOD ALL PRESSURES AND PRESERVED SRPSKA'S INSTITUTIONS

BANJA LUKA, SEPTEMBER 4 /SRNA/ - Speaker of the Republika Srpska National Assembly Nenad Stevandić said that the current parliamentary composition had operated under exceptionally difficult and challenging conditions, but had managed to preserve the institutions of Srpska and respond to numerous political and security pressures.

"I believe the plan was to finish us off during these four years, to eliminate all those who have authority among the people, to decapitate Republika Srpska and create a situation in which those in Sarajevo would choose the people who would be the most compliant," Stevandić said in a podcast by the Media System of Republika Srpska – SRNA. He said that the project had ended contrary to the expectations of those behind it, as the National Assembly had withstood all the challenges and managed to preserve the institutions of the President and the Government of Republika Srpska, which had been "the first targets". "The National Assembly was the last target, and by bringing it down, Republika Srpska would have been deinstitutionalized," Stevandić said. Stevandić also assessed that relations between Republika Srpska and Serbia had been raised to the highest possible level during the current parliamentary term, highlighting the establishment of the Serbia–Republika Srpska Parliamentary Forum as one of the most significant achievements. He also said that there is currently a wave of criminal complaints being filed in the Federation of BiH /FBiH/ over expressions of condolence to the family of General Ratko Mladić, stressing that this is also part of the ongoing attacks on Republika Srpska. Stevandić believes that, through these criminal complaints, political representatives of Republika Srpska who are fighting for the interests of Srpska are being targeted in an attempt to break them. "They are looking for a political establishment that would not win, but ultimately, that should be decided by our people. To that end, /Christian/ Schmidt devised electoral engineering. He failed to remove /Milorad/ Dodik from public life; he failed to have us arrested and imprisoned, and to undermine the Savo Minić Government. Now they are pursuing two options – mass criminal complaints to tie us up with court proceedings rather than allow us to do our job in Srpska, and, secondly, to create a system in which we would lose the elections," Stevandić said. A new episode of SRNA's podcast, featuring the Speaker of the Republika Srpska National Assembly Nenad Stevandić, will be available tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. to users of our service, as well as on social media and the SRNA YouTube channel.