GEISTLINGER: HIGH REPRESENTATIVE CAN BE LIKENED TO DICTATOR

VIENNA, April 20 /SRNA/ – Professor at the University of Salzburg, Michael Geistlinger, says that the role the international community currently plays in BiH is regrettable, adding that the high representative can be likened to a dictator.

“I regret such a role of the international community. I must be honest and say that the high representative can be likened to a dictator, which is fundamentally not in line with EU values,” Geistlinger told the press in Vienna after a panel discussion titled “The Dayton Framework and Political Realities in BiH”. He assessed that democracy cannot be expected to emerge through dictatorial interference in the acts of the parties that are the signatories of the Dayton Peace Agreement and who agreed to jointly build the state, nor by obstructing their initial steps and influencing them from the outside. “I consider that regrettable,” Geistlinger said. He also pointed out that he personally regrets the statement made by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen during a recent visit to Sarajevo that BiH still needs high representative. “What Van der Bellen said certainly does not represent the opinion of the people in Austria,” Geistlinger stated. The panel discussion was organized by the Center for Federalist and International Studies of the Political Sciences Faculty at the University of Banja Luka and the Center for Serbian Studies of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade, with the support of the Republika Srpska Representative Office in Austria. Among those attending the scientific panel discussion were representatives of Vienna’s social and public life, the academic community, and the diplomatic corps, including representatives of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the OSCE, as well as the embassies of Russia, Serbia, Hungary, and Finland.