Zagreb, 11 May 2026 (Hina/MIA) - High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt will step down after nearly five years in Sarajevo and after pressure from the US administration, but intends to remain in office until a successor is appointed, German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said Sunday.

Schmidt plans to formally announce the decision Tuesday before the United Nations Security Council, where he is due to present his regular six-monthly report on the situation in BiH.

According to a statement from the Office of the High Representative, Schmidt had personally decided to end his service in implementing the peace process in BiH. Asked by Hina to confirm the report, the OHR said they had nothing further to add.

Schmidt has asked the Peace Implementation Council to begin the search for his successor. The PIC oversees the work of the OHR and is made up of representatives of leading Western countries, Turkey as representative of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and Russia, which froze its participation in protest at Schmidt’s appointment.

Russia says Schmidt was appointed illegitimately because the procedure was not conducted through the UN Security Council, as had been the case with his predecessors. He was also rejected by Bosnian Serb representatives led by Milorad Dodik.

His expected departure comes amid diplomatic tensions over the future of the OHR.

According to FAZ, the United States has for months been pressing for Schmidt to leave office and wants to install a successor who could be more easily “managed.” Washington, however, cannot appoint a High Representative without broader backing from the PIC.

Former High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch told FAZ the United States could not unilaterally decide Schmidt’s successor, but questioned the need for the OHR to continue to exist. He said remaining unresolved issues could instead be transferred to negotiation chapters in BiH’s European Union accession process.

During his term, Schmidt repeatedly used the sweeping Bonn powers vested in the High Representative. In July 2023, he imposed amendments to BiH’s Criminal Code making failure to implement decisions of the High Representative a criminal offense.

Under those provisions, BiH’s state court in 2025 sentenced then Republika Srpska President Dodik to one year in prison and banned him from holding office for six years for defying the High Representative’s decisions.

Dodik said Saturday in Moscow he expected the UN Security Council to annul all of Schmidt’s decisions.

In 2022, Schmidt amended electoral rules in the Federation entity concerning the appointment of delegates to the upper, ethnically based House of Peoples and the formation of government. The changes prevented larger Bosniak parties from outvoting Croat representatives and excluding them from power. Bosniak parties in Sarajevo staged protests outside OHR headquarters demanding Schmidt’s removal.

In the final report he is due to present to the UN Security Council, Schmidt warns of the disintegration of BiH and increasingly serious threats to its territorial integrity. He points in particular to the policies of the Republika Srpska entity and its long-time leader Dodik.

He also warns of rhetoric directed against Bosniaks on ethnic and religious grounds as well as proposals to establish a third entity for Croats, which he describes as attempts to divide the country along ethnic lines.

Bosnian Serb officials dismissed the document as written in the interests of the Bosniak side.