Aleksandar Vučić resigns as Serbia prepares for two elections

Aleksandar Vučić resigned as Serbia’s president on 27 September, seven months before his term was due to end. His departure opens a presidential election timetable alongside an already scheduled parliamentary vote on 25 October. The immediate question for voters is who will lead Serbia after those two contests; Vučić’s resignation alone does not settle either result.

The Serbian government said Vučić signed his resignation letter after addressing the public at the Presidency in Belgrade on Sunday evening. He said he wanted to take part in the parliamentary election as an ordinary citizen. Reuters reported that hundreds of supporters cheered outside the building, where Vučić told them: ‘This is the last evening for me in this building.’

Who takes over, and when?

Vučić announced that he would hand over his duties on the morning of 28 September to Ana Brnabić, speaker of the National Assembly. The government said she would serve as acting president, while Reuters said she would hold the interim role until a successor is elected. The available accounts establish his announced handover, but do not confirm that it has taken place.

The presidential vote does not yet have a confirmed date in these accounts. Reuters reported that Serbia’s constitution requires it to be completed within 90 days of the vacancy and that the campaign must last between 30 and 60 days. Vučić said the first round would be held by the end of December, according to Reuters; the government also reported his statement that a presidential election must be held by then.

The parliamentary vote was already set

The 25 October parliamentary election was scheduled before Vučić resigned. In a 9 September account, the Serbian government said he had signed a decree dissolving the parliament elected in December 2023 and a decision calling the early vote. It said electoral deadlines would begin when the decision was published in the Official Gazette. The government’s account of the election decision is available here: https://www.srbija.gov.rs/vest/en/287130/president-of-republic-calls-parliamentary-elections-for-25-october.php.

The parliamentary result will determine the next government. Reuters reported that Vučić’s resignation allows him to be appointed prime minister if his Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, forms that government. That is a possible route back to a leading office, not a position secured by his resignation. Vučić said whoever wins voters’ confidence on 25 October will have to maintain peace and stability and protect national interests, according to the government’s account.

Reuters identified the SNS and its allies’ opponents in the parliamentary contest as Students Win, a student-led anti-corruption movement, and European Serbia, an alliance of pro-Western opposition parties. At the time of its report, those groups had yet to name presidential candidates. Who will stand in the presidential race, and the exact polling date, remain open in the available accounts.

Protests and the political backdrop

The early elections follow prolonged protests over the November 2024 collapse of a newly reconstructed railway station canopy in Novi Sad, which killed 16 people. Reuters reported that students and opposition groups demanded accountability, greater transparency in public procurement, action on corruption and an early parliamentary vote. Those demands are part of the political backdrop; the accounts do not establish that a particular allegation caused Vučić to resign.

Reuters said the disaster dealt a major blow to Vučić’s term. It reported that the government repeatedly denied protesters’ accusations, while several officials, including two ministers, were arrested or resigned after the collapse. Rights groups have accused Vučić and his allies of increasingly authoritarian rule, and protesters have alleged police beatings and unfair detention. Authorities denied those allegations, Reuters reported.

Vučić also said on Sunday that he had granted pardons to 49 people connected with the protests, according to Reuters. The government’s resignation account likewise refers to 49 pardons. Its description of the people included differs from Reuters’ breakdown, so the available accounts do not provide a consistent count for individual groups.

For now, the fixed date is the 25 October parliamentary vote. The presidency is due to pass to an acting officeholder ahead of an election that Vučić says will take place by the end of December. Whether his party forms the next government, whether he becomes prime minister, and who succeeds him as president are matters for the coming political and electoral process.