Vucic resigns as president to run for prime minister

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has announced his resignation so he can run for prime minister. The snap election will be held on 25 October, after nearly two years of student-led protests.

“I am resigning from the office of president,” Vucic said from the presidential palace, as supporters chanted his name outside. He announced he would hand over his duties to the speaker of parliament the following morning. The head of state had already said he would resign upon his return from the UN General Assembly in New York.

The early election was a central demand of the student movement that emerged after the collapse of a canopy at the Novi Sad railway station in November 2024, which killed 16 people and was widely blamed on corruption. Since then, Serbia has seen its largest mobilisations since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets at times. The initial call for a transparent investigation turned into a demand for early elections, which Vucic had repeatedly promised without setting a date, until he called them earlier this month, citing what he described as “strong turbulence on the domestic political scene.”

Vucic was first elected president in 2017 and re-elected in 2022. His five-year term had not yet expired: the law did not require him to resign in order to run for prime minister, but he chose to do so anyway.

Pardons before the vote

Vucic heads the list of his right-wing populist party, the Serbian Progressive Party, and is also its candidate for prime minister. “I want to compete as an ordinary man, as one of the people,” he said.

Shortly before resigning, he used his constitutional powers to pardon 49 people suspected of offences committed during the protests, including students and party members. He said 23 of them had been involved in the events of the past year and a half.

With Vucic's resignation, parliament speaker Ana Brnabic becomes acting president for up to three months. During this period, presidential elections must also be scheduled.