Vučić says he will resign within weeks and call early elections in Serbia

Summary

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told a rally of his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Belgrade on June 27 that he will resign within weeks and call early presidential and parliamentary elections, about a year before his mandate ends in mid-2027. Barred from a third term, he hinted he may instead run for prime minister, and predicted his bloc, which he proposed naming "United Serbia", would win "more convincingly than ever before". The move follows 18 months of student-led anti-corruption protests triggered by the November 2024 collapse of a railway-station canopy in Novi Sad that killed 16 people, the largest sustained demonstrations since the 2000 fall of Slobodan Milošević. Student leader Savo Manojlović called it an attempt to "preempt" an "inevitable fall".

The split

State-aligned and Western wires read the same words differently. AP and Reuters cast it as a tactical retreat under pressure, with Vučić engineering a vote he expects to win and a path to stay on as premier. The student-sympathetic framing (IBTimes) credits the movement, not the formal opposition, for forcing his hand, and warns the resignation is choreography. Vučić's own line, that this is "not at all the end", makes the point: he is changing chairs, not leaving.

By the numbers

• 13, years Vučić has dominated Serbian politics as president or PM.
• 18, months of student-led protests before the announcement.
• 16, people killed in the November 2024 Novi Sad canopy collapse that sparked them.
• 2027, when his second and final presidential mandate was due to expire.
• 90, days maximum after a presidential resignation by which Serbian elections must be held under the constitution.

Why it matters

A leader who built a personalised machine is conceding the streets won, then trying to launder that defeat through an election he controls the timing and rules of. Under Serbia's constitution, elections must be held within 90 days of a presidential resignation; with Vučić expected to delay resigning into July, the practical election window runs September to November 2026. He cannot run for president again but may stand for prime minister, keeping the SNS machine intact while vacating the post the protesters demanded.

What to watch

• The exact resignation date: each week's delay narrows the opposition's campaign window.
• Whether Vučić formally registers as a PM candidate, the real test of whether this is a transition or a shuffle.
• Whether students and the fragmented opposition field a united presidential candidate or splinter.
• Turnout and any disputes over fairness, the protesters' core grievance against a system Vučić's SNS party controls at every administrative level.