Vučić Resigns as Serbia's President Eight Months Early to Seek Prime Minister Post

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has announced his resignation eight months before the scheduled end of his second term. He had signaled the move in June, saying he was in his "final weeks" in office.

Vučić has shaped Serbian politics for more than a decade. He began his career in the 1990s as a lawmaker for the Serbian Radical Party and information minister under Slobodan Milošević, before breaking with the far right in 2008 to co-found the more moderate Serbian Progressive Party. The party first entered government as part of a coalition in 2012, won a parliamentary majority two years later, and made Vučić prime minister. He became president in 2017, though he kept firm control over his party and the country even from the formally weaker presidential office. His party has now governed Serbia for 14 consecutive years.

Freedom House rates Serbia as "partly free" under Vučić, citing suppression of the opposition and concentration of power at home, alongside a foreign-policy balancing act between pursuing EU membership and maintaining ties with Moscow and Beijing. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Serbia has condemned the war and refused to recognize the annexation of Ukrainian territory, but it has not joined EU sanctions against Russia and has become a major destination for Russians leaving the country over the war.

What led to the resignation

Vučić says he is stepping down to take part in snap parliamentary elections he himself called for October 25, amid protests that have continued for nearly two years. The unrest began after a canopy collapsed at a recently renovated railway station in Novi Sad in November 2024, killing 16 people. Memorial gatherings evolved into political rallies, with demonstrators accusing the government of negligence and demanding accountability.

The protests peaked in spring 2025, when an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 people joined a March demonstration in Belgrade. Soon after, students at the core of the movement called for early elections, saying corruption had taken root too deeply in state institutions. Vučić ignored that demand for 16 months before finally calling elections in early September 2026.

A new presidential election must now be held within three months, with parliament speaker Ana Brnabić serving as acting president. Vučić cannot run for president again, having exhausted the two-term limit, but if his party wins the parliamentary vote, fellow party members have already nominated him for prime minister. Polls suggest the Student List could pose a serious challenge to the ruling party.