Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said on Saturday that he will resign within weeks and call early elections, a striking announcement after more than a year of anti-government protests — though he stopped well short of fixing a date.
What he said
Addressing supporters at a pro-government rally in Belgrade, Vučić said: "I will be president for only a couple of weeks, and then I will resign," and predicted his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) would win the elections to follow, Al Jazeera reported. Crucially, he gave no precise resignation date and did not formally dissolve parliament — the legal step needed to trigger early legislative elections — making the announcement a public pledge rather than a completed act, as Euronews and the AP noted. He had earlier signaled a timeline of a few months, with a vote expected in the autumn.
The protests behind it
The announcement caps one of Serbia's longest stretches of unrest in decades. The trigger was the collapse of a concrete canopy at the Novi Sad railway station on November 1, 2024, which killed 16 people. Demonstrators blamed corruption and negligence in state construction contracts — claims the government denied — and a student-led movement grew into nationwide rallies demanding accountability and early elections. Prime Minister Miloš Vučević resigned in January 2025 under the pressure, and the European Union has voiced concern over democratic backsliding and the treatment of protesters.
A resignation that may not end his rule
Vučić, who with the SNS has dominated Serbian politics for more than a decade, is barred from a third presidential term. But analysts cited by Bloomberg and the AP noted he could return as prime minister — a post he held from 2014 to 2017 and one that carries substantial executive power under Serbia's system. His pledge to campaign for the SNS, and the timing of a vote called while his party remains organized and funded, suggested to many observers a calculated transition rather than an exit from public life.
What happens next
A presidential resignation would set in motion a constitutionally mandated election within a fixed window, with the parliamentary speaker acting as president in the interim; early parliamentary elections would require a separate dissolution Vučić has announced but not yet enacted. Students and opposition groups, who have sustained the protest campaign for over a year, planned fresh rallies, pressing for genuinely free and fair elections. For now, the movement has extracted a promise — not yet a resignation.
