Before the parliamentary election in Serbia: A resignation out of calculation

A leksandar Vučić has resigned as President of Serbia, but remains the country's absolute ruler. For almost a decade, contrary to the constitution, he has been the government and police chief, public prosecutor and judge, editor-in-chief of aligned media, boss of criminal gangs, Santa Claus for the impoverished... in a word: people's leader.

His formal resignation from the highest state office will not change anything in the power system of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Just as Vučić was not a normal president, Serbia is not a normal European state either. It is a tailor-made autocracy in which the state institutions occupied by the autocrat's party act in his interests rather than in the interests of the citizens.

Although Vučić could also pull the strings in Serbia informally, he also needs a formal leadership position. On the one hand, in order to be able to move on the international diplomatic stage, and on the other hand, because it could be dangerous for him in the long run. And last but not least because he is addicted to the media.

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His second presidential mandate would have expired in May 2027 anyway, and he is not allowed to run for office a third time. And so he has long been aiming for the role of head of government. He has so far led the SNS's election campaign for the early parliamentary elections on October 25th from the position of power as president.

But his popularity ratings are not exactly satisfactory. Too many Serbian voters are fed up with his audacity and arrogance. Now he wants to try to change the mood by traveling through Serbia as a simple person, one of us, in his old, rickety Skoda, without the (visible) pomp of the president.

Vučić no longer holds a single position; he is not even formally the leader of the SNS. If, like last year, violence, riots, police brutality and mass arrests occur during the student protests, he will be able to wash his hands of innocence at home and abroad.