Christian Schmidt, a high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina who is not recognized as legitimate by the Republika Srpska authorities, will leave Bosnia and Herzegovina after the next general elections, several diplomatic sources have confirmed. Independent newspaper.
According to available information, the reason for his departure is not a shift, but retirement. Schmidt originally planned to devote his mandate to economic reforms and connecting Bosnia and Herzegovina with German investors.
However, the political crisis, which escalated after his predecessor Valentin Inzko imposed changes to the Criminal Code on the prohibition of denial of genocide, made it impossible to realize those plans.
Schmidt spent most of his mandate solving crises that he did not cause himself, considering his stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be the end of his political career.
Within the countries of the quintet, there is agreement in principle on the method of electing Schmidt’s successor.
The key question remains the position of Russia, which disputes Schmidt’s legitimacy due to the lack of confirmation in the UN Security Council.
If the new high representative is elected in a similar way, a similar reaction from Moscow is expected, but it will be interesting to observe whether Banja Luka will challenge the successor if the administration of Donald Trump stands behind him.
Sources confirm that the Trump administration is not opposed to OHR and that closing the office is not an option until all conditions are met.
Nevertheless, there is a noticeable distance towards Schmidt, probably due to the fact that his mandate was confirmed by the previous administration of Joe Biden, whose legitimacy Trump disputes.
The turn of Brussels is also interesting.
While the European Union previously advocated the closure of the OHR as incompatible with the European path, with the arrival of Trump, that position has changed and Brussels now stands more strongly with this institution.
Germany, on the other hand, rejected any possibility of Schmidt’s removal only because of the dissatisfaction of some members of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC).
According to a long-standing agreement, the high representative always comes from Europe, while his deputy and head of the OSCE mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina are Americans.
