Student protests force President Aleksandar Vucic to announce resignation and early elections: I will step down within a few weeks

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday that he will resign within a few weeks and announced the holding of early presidential and parliamentary elections.

Vucic’s announcement comes after a year and a half of student-led anti-corruption protests that spread across the country following the collapse of a shelter at the railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad, where 16 people lost their lives.

A few days earlier, in Novi Sad, students commemorated the victims of 2024 and called for early general elections.

“I will be president for only a few more weeks and then I will resign,” Vucic told his supporters during a pro-government rally in the capital, Belgrade. His second and final term ends in mid-2027.

Vucic also said he would help the Serbian Progressive Party win the elections, including the early parliamentary vote, which had initially been scheduled for 2027. However, he did not specify when he would resign or when he might dissolve parliament, a necessary condition for holding early parliamentary elections.

Protesters, the opposition and human rights organizations claim that the tragedy at the railway station was a sign of mismanagement of construction projects and corruption in the government. Activists in the student movement say they aim to challenge Vucic and the SNS in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.