Serbia’s president has put a clock on his own presidency, and the shift reaches well beyond one office. “I will be president for only a couple of weeks, and then I will resign,” Aleksandar Vucic told a large pro-government rally in Belgrade on Saturday, according to Kyiv Post, citing Reuters.
His second and final mandate was due to end in mid-2027. Leaving now brings early presidential and parliamentary elections.
He gave no date for the resignation. He gave none for dissolving parliament either, which is a constitutional prerequisite before snap legislative polls can be held.
Not leaving politics
Stepping down from the presidency does not mean stepping back. Vucic told supporters he would help the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the coming campaigns, if the party wants him. He also proposed that its electoral list carry the name “United Serbia” and said he would campaign under that banner.
There has been talk that he may aim for a return as prime minister, a post he held from 2014 to 2017, according to wtxnews. Vucic has not said so.
The announcement fits what he signaled earlier. On June 11, he said he would eventually resign and that elections would come within three to four months. He ruled out July and August, arguing that the summer holidays are a poor time to hold a national vote.
The street behind the announcement
The protest movement is the backdrop. For a year and a half, students have marched against what they call corruption, after a railway station canopy in Novi Sad collapsed and killed 16 people. Their demand has been early elections. Days before the rally, a student-led protest in Novi Sad repeated it, RFE/RL reported.
At the rally, Vucic called for dialogue with the demonstrators. He also accused the movement of being influenced by foreign actors, again without evidence.
Energy and the EU
The transition arrives while Belgrade is nervous about its gas supply. In early April, Vucic said security forces flying helicopters had found explosive devices near a key gas site in the municipality of Kanjiza, the point where Serbia’s network connects to Hungary. Two large packages of explosives with detonators were recovered.
“If there had been a gas shutdown there, Hungary would have no gas, and we in northern Serbia would not have gas either,” he said, tying the episode to “geopolitical games.”
Serbia leans on the TurkStream pipeline for Russian gas, a route that Hungary and Russia have both claimed Ukraine could target. Earlier this year Vucic also floated selling the NIS oil company to Hungary’s MOL as a way around Western sanctions on Russian-owned assets.
The EU path is murky too. Some member states are uneasy that Serbia has not joined the bloc’s sanctions policy toward Russia. Vucic, president since 2017, says that if his party wins, it will keep heading toward the EU and keep a “traditional partnership” with Moscow and Beijing.
Sources
- Serbian President Vucic Vows To Resign, Announces Early Elections
- Serbian President Vucic to Resign Within Weeks, Paving the Way for Early Elections
- Serbian president vučić announces resignation and calls early elections
