The former international envoy for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, has finally decided to speak publicly and has pointed to "enormous and unexpected pressures" from the United States as one of the central reasons that pushed him to leave his post on May 10.
Schmidt resigned as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina after months of clashes with the authorities of Republika Srpska, the country's Serb entity. This German conservative politician acted as the international guarantor of the Dayton Accords, which ended the Bosnian War, and had broad powers to ensure compliance with what was agreed upon.
Precisely these powers placed him in direct confrontation with the president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, who was ultimately sentenced to six months of disqualification for disobeying Schmidt's decisions.
The conflict dates back to June 2023, when the National Assembly of Republika Srpska approved the temporary invalidation of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia, considering that the national character of the court was compromised by the presence of three foreign judges: a German, an Albanian, and a Swiss.
Faced with this situation, the High Representative resorted to the prerogatives of his office, enshrined in the peace agreements signed in 1995 in Dayton (USA), to annul the decision of the Bosnian Serb Parliament, interpreting it practically as a secessionist move. As a result, a court in Sarajevo opened proceedings against Dodik, which ultimately led to the aforementioned sanction.
Two weeks after his resignation, Schmidt granted an interview to the German newspaper 'Augsburger Allgemeine', in which he admits his total perplexity at Washington's actions, without fully understanding the reasons himself. The fact is that the Trump administration has been showing its explicit support for Dodik for some time.
In October of last year, the United States Department of the Treasury lifted the sanctions against the Bosnian Serb secessionist leader, who is close to Russia, initially imposed by the previous Democratic president, Joe Biden, for his attempts at "destabilization," and Dodik himself maintains a fluid relationship with the Trump family with the intention of transforming the Serb entity into a new business hub in the Balkans.
"All I can say about it," Schmidt commented on the matter, "is that there have been enormous and unexpected pressures from the United States, and the background to this discussion has never been completely clear to me."
According to various sources, the pressure to force Schmidt's departure may also be linked to the former President of Republika Srpska's support for gas power plant and pipeline projects promoted by businessmen close to Trump, including a pipeline between Croatia and Bosnia. "The issue played a role, but I never opposed this project," Schmidt commented on the matter.
Furthermore, he stressed that the pipeline from Croatia to Bosnia was conceived as a European Union initiative to reduce Bosnia and Herzegovina's dependence on oil and gas from Russia. "I am even more surprised that the EU itself has not managed to build this pipeline with European funds, and that Bosnia now needs the Americans for it, who are partly contributing their own ideas," he indicated.