Vučić’s resignation turns a constitutional move into a referendum on his rule

Vučić’s resignation turns a constitutional move into a referendum on his rule
Aleksandar Vučić’s resignation is formally a constitutional manoeuvre, but Serbia’s early parliamentary election has made it a much larger test: whether the country’s dominant political figure can retain power without the presidency.

The conservative framing is relatively straightforward: Vučić has stepped aside to run for prime minister at an early vote, seeking a more powerful executive post while complying with the constitutional ban on a third presidential term. The liberal account sees the same move as a calculated attempt to preserve his political dominance after 12 years as either prime minister or president. Vučić himself announced, “I am resigning the duty of the president of the republic,” but the timing has made the resignation inseparable from the campaign.

The election comes after nearly two years of protests led by students and youth groups. Their movement began after a railway-station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad in November 2024, killing 16 people, and widened into a challenge to corruption, institutional capture and the ruling Serbian Progressive Party’s 14-year grip on power. The student-backed list is presenting itself as an accountability movement; Vučić’s camp portrays the opposition and critical media as threats backed by unspecified foreign forces.

That contrast defines the ballot. Supporters of the president can point to his continued popularity, state experience and highly visible campaign visits, where he has promoted new roads, financial assistance and cheaper medicines. Critics argue that the same campaign machinery blurs the line between state resources and party advantage. Serbia’s independent Bureau for Social Research has complained that Vučić used a public institution to promote his party, an allegation he rejects, while anti-corruption bodies have yet to respond.

Ana Brnabić, a close ally, will serve as acting president. Yet the deeper question is not who temporarily occupies the office. It is whether an election conducted under intense media, institutional and political asymmetry can genuinely transfer power—or simply give Vučić a new title.