Alliance of Independent Social Democrats

And Latvia was one of those countries which had, uh, elections this past Saturday.

Uh, and it was, uh, an election which actually looked like the m- the incumbent, uh, prime minister who was leading the country before, Andris Kulbergs, uh, he, his, his party, his centrist United List party, uh, managed to secure 35.3% of the vote, claiming 42 seats in the parliament.

So it also means that, uh, they have, while they don't have a majority, they have, you know, the largest number of seats, and most analysts say that there's not gonna be an issue for them to create some sort of cabinet, uh, and lead the country.

Uh, I think, you know, what this is, uh, really important is that, uh, you know, the party itself is kind of center right, so it shows that, uh, Latvia is, uh, staying kind of on this, uh, center right, m- liberal politics.

Uh, but it also means that, uh, it is a pro-Ukrainian party, it is an anti-Russian, uh, party.

The, the parties which do support, mm, kind of Russ- like are pro-Russian, are considered pro-Russian, they have some representation in parliament, but they're not gonna have any influence or any power according to most analysts.

You know, an important election, but one I think that has, um, you know, has kind of brought some stability, and I think some people were a bit worried of which direction things were gonna go in Latvia, especially when you had this kind of new opposition party which showed up, uh, which was called Latvia First, basically kind of like a Trumpist party, and they only got 13% of support, and that's second place.

Uh, so they're clearly not gonna be part of the, uh, kind of the majority, uh, government that's gonna be formed.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina now, the pro-Russian Serb nationalist politician Milorad Dodik has declared his party the winner in Bosnia and Herzegovina's election.

Dodik was not on the ballot, but his Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD party, is poised to retain its seat in the country's tripartite presidency shared between Croats, Serbs, and Bosniak ethnic groups.

That's part of a complex political system established after the 1992, 1995 Bosnian War.

Dodik thanked Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin for helping his party to win.

However, this was designed in Dayton by the West as a transitional arrangement only for a couple of years.

And the fact that the West did not manage to go to, to remove from that stage, uh, but rather trying for the last two decades to so-called transition to local ownership without transitioning from this, uh, provisional Dayton, uh, arrangement, really led the, the EU and the West as a whole, um, into a, a role of colluding with local, um, ethnopolitical elites, particularly with the tandem of SNSD, Mr. Dodik, and HDZ, Mr. Jovic, the leader in their decade-old attempt to further ethnically divide the country and turn it into a sort of inf- informal-

Let's just point out for viewers, when you mention the HDZ-

Yes

I mean, you mentioned that he's can't run, but I mean, I saw campaign videos and, you know, it's always Dodik and, you know, his loyal, uh, party, uh, office holders.

So I'm just wondering to which degree is SNSD going to hold on to power in the Republika Srpska.

Because of course, the control of Dodik over Republika Srpska has been, like, such a critical part of the whole, you know, kind of dysfunctionality of the country, um, since 2006.

I mean, it's not that he's the only one to blame, but he's certainly been the, you know, the one who's been really driving this.

So there, there's little room for other parties to challenge this.

Republika Srpska is the biggest open question.

I mean, what comes after Dodik? And currently, it's essentially, you know, Dodik without Dodik, because you have a continuation of SNSD politics.

They are likely to win, even without the man running, you know, in front of everyone, but he's still running the show.

And you have, and the other part of, of opposition led by Drasko Stanivukovic and some s- some leaders from the SDS, which is the largest opposition party, who is not so radical, but they, you know, they have some sort of influence.

But right now, as the governing party, the SNSD are still the strongest party.

All the research says that they will win the election in the parliament with the s- all, uh, small parties around them.

That's one-

So I think the healthiest thing for this Political system and for the country, for Republika Srpska would be to lift the census on seven percent.

That would allow this, just the serious parties to be in the parliament, and that will make the parties more responsible, and that will be clearer.

Because right now, the SNSD is responsible in the eye of the people because for everything that happens in the government, and you have like five parties around them.

They have the ministers, they have public companies.

What is the likelihood of the people whose strings Dodik is pulling actually getting anywhere in the elections?

They're still pretty high, because his machine, the SNSD, his party, as all of these sort of machines, it's got its tentacles extending into all sorts of public institutions and into all sorts of media.

And that's always the problem, as I think Steve will know very well indeed.

You get the state capture, you get the media capture, and you also have the clientelism.