Dodik Says Bosnian Serbs Should Not Live 'Under Muslim Rule'

Milorad Dodik has said Bosnian Serbs no longer want to live “under Muslim rule,” casting doubt on their future in Bosnia and Herzegovina and renewing his attack on the agreement that holds the country together.

“We Christians do not want to live under Muslim rule any longer,” the Bosnian Serb politician said during an appearance on the U.S. conservative podcast War Zone while in Washington.

He invoked centuries of Ottoman rule and alleged that Serbs had suffered persecution.

“We believe that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a place for us,” he said.

Attack on Dayton

Dodik also dismissed the Dayton Agreement, which ended the 1992–1995 Bosnian War and established the country’s power-sharing system, as “a fiction.”

He argued that Serbs should have gone their own way after Yugoslavia’s breakup rather than remain in a state with Bosniaks and Croats.

Bosnia’s constitutional system divides authority among its three constituent peoples: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats.

Dodik has long argued that Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity, should have the right to determine its own future, including independence.

Praise for Trump

Dodik described U.S. President Donald Trump as offering “freedom, hope, a new window opening to freedom.”

He contrasted Trump with former president Joe Biden, whose administration he blamed for restrictions that he said prevented him from holding a bank account or receiving his salary through ordinary channels.

Dodik leads the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats and remains an influential figure in Republika Srpska.

His mandate as its president was terminated after a 2025 conviction for failing to implement decisions of Bosnia’s international High Representative.