Serbian President Vučić resigns: the way is clear for his candidacy as head of government

/afp | Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has resigned - and is now devoting himself to his candidacy for the office of head of government in the election at the end of October. Vučić signed his resignation certificate in front of journalists at the presidential palace in Belgrade on Sunday. “Tomorrow morning I will hand over my official duties to the Speaker of Parliament,” announced the conservative-nationalist politician. Supporters gathered outside the palace chanted Vučić's name.

The early parliamentary elections in Serbia will take place on October 25th. With his resignation, Vučić cleared the way to run in the election as the leading candidate of the ruling SNS party. “The fight is just beginning,” he said.

Under pressure from the opposition, Vučić dissolved parliament at the beginning of September and called new elections. Actually, a new parliament should not be elected in Serbia until December 2027. After Vučić's resignation, parliamentary speaker Ana Brnabic is now taking over as acting head of state.

The early elections were a main demand of the protest movement that arose after the collapse of a train station canopy in the city of Novi Sad in November 2024. The protests, which were mainly carried out by students, were initially primarily about coming to terms with the accident in which 16 people died. The themes of the demonstrations later expanded to include general criticism of the government and widespread corruption in the country.

Shortly before his resignation on Sunday, Vučić issued pardons for 49 convicts, including students and SNS supporters. The 56-year-old said that 23 of those pardoned were convicted in connection with “the terrible events that we have been through in the past year and a half.” Vučić was referring to the protests. Vučić was first elected president in 2017 and was confirmed in office in 2022.

Vučić was a former radical nationalist and a follower of former ruler Slobodan Milosevic, who died in prison in 2006 as a defendant at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. However, Vučić later moderated his positions. For years he has presented himself as a reformer and has been committed to Serbia's accession to the EU. At the same time, despite Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Vučić continues to rely on his country's good relations with Russia.