On 27 September 2026, the President of Serbia, Alexander Vucić, who has been in office for more than 10 years, officially announced his resignation from the presidency, completing his second five-year term seven months ahead of schedule, to serve as a candidate for the ruling party, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), in the early parliamentary elections to be held on 25 October to contest the post of Prime Minister. According to the Constitution of Serbia, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Anna Blanic, will serve as interim President for up to 90 days, subject to the completion of presidential elections before the end of the year. This change was a direct result of the massive protests in the country for almost two years and marked the official launch of the road by which Vucić had bypassed the presidential term limits and continued political power.
Vucić, 56 years old, has been the Prime Minister and President of Serbia since 2014, the most influential political figure in Serbia for nearly a decade, and the Serbian Progressive Party, which has held the majority of parliamentary seats since 2012. The central motivation for this resignation is, first and foremost, the constitutional restrictions: the Serbian Constitution clearly provides for the President to be re-elected for a maximum of two consecutive terms, Vucić was first elected President in 2017, and was successfully re-elected in 2022 at a rate of 58 per cent, with the original term ending in May 2027 and no re-election to the presidency. This is followed by social protest pressure that lasted for almost two years: In November 2024, the train station shed in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed, killing 16 people, and official investigations were widely directed at neglect and corruption, triggering massive student-led protests, culminating in hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets, with core demands including accountability for accidents, advancing national anti-corruption reforms and holding early elections without preconditions. Vucić had previously promised to hold elections ahead of schedule, but had never set a specific date, formally dissolved the National Assembly in early September on the grounds of “significant political instability in the country”, decided to hold early parliamentary elections on 25 October, and announced his resignation from the presidency as Prime Minister. In a resignation speech on 27 September, Vucić stated that “I want to run as an ordinary citizen”, that “the fighting has only just begun”, and that his supporters gathered outside the presidential palace to shout his name, and that there was a lively atmosphere.
Vucić, in his speech on the evening of 27 September, signed a written letter of resignation on the spot, stating, “This is my last night in this building, where I served all Serbian citizens and motherland loyally”, while acknowledging that “we have done much, but I have made many mistakes” and apologized to the people. On 28 September, the Government of Serbia formally confirmed that the letter of resignation had been submitted to the National Assembly, that the President ' s office in Vucić had been officially terminated and that Blanić had assumed the interim President as constitutionally mandated. According to Serbian law, the interim President will be elected for a maximum period of 90 days, so that a new presidential election will be held no later than 27 December 2026. The parliamentary elections of 25 October will result in a new 200-seat National Assembly, and if Vucić ' s Serbian Progressive Party receives more than half of its seats, the Assembly will formally appoint Vucić as Prime Minister, at which time he will move from a defunct President to a head of Government with great executive power, continuing his dominance of Serbian politics. According to numerous media reports, Vucić does not at present completely exclude the possibility of re-election to the presidency in the future, and he may still return to the presidency if the term limits are lifted by future constitutional amendments.
There is a clear difference between the resignation and the impact of the elections on different groups in Serbia: For domestic voters and protest groups, the core demands of the protest movement for almost two years — early elections — have been met, but the fairness of the elections will be the new focus. The opposition has repeatedly accused the Government of Vucić of silencing dissent and controlling the mainstream media, demanding that the elections must be conducted under the full supervision of international observers such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, while student organizations leading the protests have indicated that they will follow the entire electoral process closely and that any fraud would immediately reopen the street protests. For Vucić’s supporters, his transition to Prime Minister means that the policy path of the past decade will be continued, including friendly cooperation with Russia, a strong denial of Kosovo’s independence, and a balanced strategy to advance accession negotiations with the EU, while Vucić, as Israel’s Prime Minister’s Ally of Netanyahu, will maintain his pro-Israeli diplomatic stance. For Serbia's external relations, the European Union, which has previously linked Serbia's accession negotiations to democratic reform and anti-corruption results on several occasions, has expressed its intention to send observers to oversee the electoral process, the results of which will have a direct impact on the next pace of Serbia's accession negotiations; if the Russian side maintains close energy and military cooperation with the Vucić Government, Vucić's Prime Minister will continue to maintain Serbia's military neutrality and will not join NATO while deepening cooperation with Russia; and Kosovo's concern is whether Vucić will continue to deny Kosovo's independence and will advance the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo and avoid escalation. For the domestic business community, businesses and investors close to the SNS Government over the past decade will continue to maintain a stable policy environment, while opposition politicians and independent media practitioners expect elections to bring about changes in the political landscape, and the advancement of future anti-corruption reforms will directly affect their space for survival.
The next few months will be a critical window for Serbian politics, with three core nodes: first, the parliamentary elections of 25 October, the core node determining whether Vucić will succeed as Prime Minister, and if the Serbian Progressive Party receives more than half of the parliamentary seats, Vucić will presumably succeed as Prime Minister; if the Parliament is suspended, a multi-party coalition government may be needed, Vucić's power path will face a change. The second is the presidential election before the end of the year, the election of interim President Blanic and the presentation of a unified candidate by the opposition, which will determine Serbia ' s head of State for the next five years. Although the President is a false head of State, the President ' s legislative veto and diplomatic symbolism still have some influence. The third is the post-election cabinet process, whose composition, if Vucić becomes Prime Minister, will send a signal of future policy direction, including concrete measures for anti-corruption reform, the priority of negotiations with the European Union, and the way Kosovo is dealt with, among other things, will be the focus of national and international attention. While the current overall political situation in Serbia remains calm and the latest poll shows that the support rate for Vucić remains around 50 per cent, the continued concern of protest groups and the checks and balances of the opposition will determine whether this transfer of power will be completed smoothly and will significantly affect Serbia ' s domestic policy and external direction over the next five years. (approximately 2100 words in full)