---
title: "A Canopy in Novi Sad, a Resignation in Belgrade: Vučić Bets on October"
description: "Serbia’s leader of twelve years steps down as president to run for the more powerful job, as a student movement closes in"
author: "Walter Pine"
published: 2026-09-28T06:23:02Z
modified: 2026-09-28T09:20:41Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/vucic-gives-up-the-presidency-to-keep-the-power-e7d4e8
language: en
tags: ["politics", "elections", "corruption", "protests", "war", "europe"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# A Canopy in Novi Sad, a Resignation in Belgrade: Vučić Bets on October

*Serbia’s leader of twelve years steps down as president to run for the more powerful job, as a student movement closes in*

By Walter Pine · September 28, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/vucic-gives-up-the-presidency-to-keep-the-power-e7d4e8

## In brief

- President Aleksandar Vučić resigned Sunday to lead his SNS party in a snap parliamentary election set for October 25
- Barred from a third presidential term, Vučić seeks the prime minister’s office, formally Serbia’s most powerful job
- Ana Brnabić becomes acting president; a presidential election first round must be held by year’s end
- The student movement behind nearly two years of protests is polling closely with Vučić in a referendum-like race
- Vučić pardoned 49 people before leaving office, including 23 prosecuted over the protests

The canopy at the railway station in Novi Sad fell on the first of November, 2024. It killed sixteen people. The station is in Serbia’s second city, in the flat north of the country, and the concrete awning that came down on travellers that day has since become the heaviest object in Serbian politics — the thing that set university students into the streets, that grew into the most serious challenge to Aleksandar Vučić in his twelve years as prime minister or president, and that now frames the early parliamentary election called for October 25, at which Vučić, having resigned the presidency on Sunday, intends to make himself prime minister.

Vučić announced his resignation by reading its text aloud — “I am resigning the duty of the President of the Republic” — after nearly two years of protests that the student movement had spent most of that time turning into a single demand: early elections. Earlier this month he granted the demand, announcing the snap vote, and on Sunday he vacated the presidency to lead the ticket of his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party, the SNS, into it. Before signing, he addressed supporters gathered outside the presidency building in Belgrade. “Tonight is a very special occasion for me, my last evening in this beautiful building,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “But I look to the future with joy, new victories await us.” As the crowd chanted his name, he added, of his opponents: “Let’s beat them more convincingly than ever before.”

## The arithmetic of the offices

The resignation is not a retreat. It is a manoeuvre around the Serbian constitution, which bars Vučić from a third presidential term; his second would otherwise have run until May of next year. In Serbia the prime minister is formally the more powerful office, though the distinction has been theoretical for some time: Vučić dominated the state through both his five-year presidential terms, at times presiding over government sessions and routinely announcing all important decisions and plans himself. He has held one office or the other since 2014, and the SNS has held power since 2012. The parliamentary ballot is his route to a thirteenth year, and beyond. Analysts quoted in the coverage describe the run for prime minister as an attempt to retain the top position and to lift his party’s chances against the students.

What happens to the presidency is set out in law. The acting president will be Ana Brnabić, a close Vučić ally, former prime minister and outgoing speaker of the 250-member parliament. Once a new parliament is elected, its new speaker replaces Brnabić, appoints the prime minister and schedules the presidential vote; Vučić said the first round of that election must be held by the end of the year, under a 90-day deadline.

## The students, on bicycles

The movement arrayed against him began with the demand for accountability in Novi Sad and widened into a campaign against corruption and for the rule of law. At its height, in March 2025, more than 100,000 people filled the streets, according to Al Jazeera. Its electoral vehicle is a student-backed list of little-known people — experts, professors, teachers, athletes, others from many walks of life. Groups of students have been touring the country by bicycle to campaign. Analysts say the student list and Vučić are polling closely, in what the Associated Press describes as a referendum-like atmosphere; also running are the Socialists, Vučić’s allies, a pro-European Union opposition alliance, and several smaller groups.

Vučić’s own campaign has run for weeks with live coverage on pro-government media: roads opened, assistance money offered, cheaper medicines promised, voters visited in their homes, the candidate more recently filmed driving to events in his brother’s car. The Independent Bureau for Social Research has filed a complaint alleging he abused the presidency — a public institution — to promote his party. He has dismissed the allegation, and the anti-corruption authorities, which are under government control, have not responded. He told the state broadcaster RTS on Sunday, without offering evidence, that foreign powers and unidentified people inside the country plan to stir unrest on election night.

Before leaving office he signed pardons for 49 people, the AP reports, 23 of them prosecuted for alleged offences during the protests — among them a group of anti-government activists who fled Serbia after being accused of anti-state activities. As of Monday, he said, he would be “everywhere in Serbia to listen to the people.” He conceded a degree of fallibility while praising his government’s record: “I have made mistakes but I have worked diligently like hardly anyone in this position.”

## Fourteen years, and the ledger

The accusations against Vučić and the SNS run long: rampant corruption, links to organised crime, a clampdown on democratic freedoms including critical media, and the gradual capture of every state institution since 2012. The party denies abuse of office and has repeatedly pledged to fight corruption. Authorities have met the protest wave with police violence and detentions, while Vučić has accused his opponents and critical outlets of intending to “destroy the state” under unspecified foreign influence. Serbia’s bid to join the European Union has stalled on his watch, over democratic backsliding and a refusal to join sanctions against Russia for the war in Ukraine. Whether an election called on the incumbent’s own timetable can settle any of this is another matter; analysts told Al Jazeera that the snap vote is unlikely to end the country’s crisis.

So the country goes to the polls on October 25 with its dominant politician seeking a new chair in a room he has never really left — a calculation on which this publication has reported before. The students wanted the election, and now they have it, five weeks to run it, and a canopy in Novi Sad whose collapse asked a question the vote is meant to answer: who is responsible. Sixteen people are the reason there is an election at all.

## Sources

- [Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic resigns amid prolonged protests](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/27/serbian-president-aleksandar-vucic-resigns-amid-prolonged-protests) — aljazeera.com
- [Serbia’s populist president Aleksandar Vučić resigns to run for prime minister](https://theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/27/serbia-president-aleksandar-vucic-resigns-run-prime-minister) — theguardian.com
- [Serbia's snap election: Can Vucic outmanoeuvre the student revolt?](https://aljazeera.com/features/2026/9/28/serbias-snap-election-can-vucic-outmanoeuvre-the-student-revolt) — aljazeera.com
- [Serbia's populist President Vucic resigns to run for prime minister in early vote - Los Angeles Times](https://latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-09-27/serbias-populist-president-vucic-resigns-to-run-for-prime-minister-in-early-vote) — latimes.com