Serbia’s populist President Vucic says he will resign within weeks as election nears

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia ‘s populist President Aleksandar Vucic said Saturday he will 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 will help his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party at upcoming 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.

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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.

Vucic has gradually tightened his grip on power since his populist party took over the Serbian government 14 years ago. A train station accident in the country’s north in November 2024 triggered monthslong mass protests demanding accountability for the tragedy that killed 16 people.

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Vucic has pushed back hard against the protesters, and has also faced European Union criticism over Serbia’s democratic backsliding, including a media clampdown. Hundreds of people have been detained and Serbia’s police was accused of excessive force and arbitrary arrests.

Anti-government protesters have blamed the fall of a concrete canopy at the Novi Sad railway station on alleged corruption-fueled negligence in big state infrastructure projects.