Serbia's President Vucic Announces Resignation Amid Protests, Paving Way for Early Elections

Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday that he would resign his post within weeks, paving the way for early elections following youth-led protests that shook his tight grip on power. Vucic did not specify exactly when he would resign or when an election, either for parliament or for a new president, could be held. He has said in the past that he could leave the post amid speculation that he would try to switch to the formally more powerful position of prime minister of the Balkan country. Vucic, who is currently serving his second term, cannot run again for president, according to Serbia’s election law. Both regular presidential and parliamentary elections are due next year.

“I will be president for several weeks more and then I will submit my resignation,” Vucic told thousands of his supporters in downtown Belgrade. He said he would help his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party at the coming elections. “We will win more convincingly than ever before,” he said, telling the crowd that this was probably the last time he addresses them as Serbia’s president. University students behind more than a year of protests against Vucic’s increasingly autocratic rule in Serbia have been demanding early parliamentary elections for over a year, but Vucic so far has refrained from setting the date.