France

Paris, October 5, 2026. The French press is reporting on the Bosnian general elections, which, according to Le Monde, saw the Sunday, October 4 vote "bring no surprise". The first estimates from the Central Election Commission have consecrated the nationalist parties: in Sarajevo, the newspaper reports that Bosniak Denis Becirovic has been re-elected, the outgoing Croatian president, known for being close to Bosniak positions, has been replaced by Darijana Filipovic from the nationalist HDZ party, and Milorad Dodik's SNSD has been reconfirmed in the presidency and parliament of the Republika Srpska.

The newspaper emphasizes the disillusionment of a large part of the approximately 3.2 million inhabitants: a restaurateur in Sarajevo tells them, "Don't write about the elections, our politicians don't deserve it". RFI, on the other hand, notes a "sharp decline in the turnout rate" and recalls that 3.4 million voters were called to elect the leaders of a "institutional millefeuille" resulting from the 1995 peace agreement, which shares power between Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs.

The figure of Milorad Dodik takes center stage. RFI describes a 67-year-old leader who has been in power since 2006, removed in 2025 from the presidency of the Republika Srpska for failing to respect the authority of the international High Representative and banned by the judiciary from holding office for six years. Nevertheless, he has continued to lead the entity thanks to the weight of the SNSD. In front of his supporters in Banja Luka, he declared, "If Donald Trump's magnificent victory had not taken place, we would probably be political corpses today", and he thanked Vladimir Putin. Sud Ouest quotes his phrase from Friday evening: "Bosnia-Herzegovina is dead, it's an impossible country, it makes no sense".

Pre-election reports set the social and democratic context. Sud Ouest gives the floor to a 29-year-old environmental activist who says "the situation has never been worse", and notes that the average salary has risen from 570 to 885 euros since 2022, while the cost of living has increased by more than 50%, according to the trade union. RFI, in a special report from Bratunac, judges that the role of extremists "seems to be crumbling" as clientelism and corruption lose ground, while emphasizing that electoral transparency remains "a constant struggle" in the face of suspicions of fraud.

The French narrative thus focuses less on the European candidacy or regional issues than on the reproduction of the ethno-political system and the weariness of voters.