Vucic mentions possible resignation from China, but no date and no reason

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on May 25 in Beijing, speaking with Serbian reporters on the margins of his official visit to the People’s Republic of China, that he could submit his resignation. Vucic added that his term was “near the end anyway” and that he was still weighing the decision, but did not specify a date or a formal procedure. The statement came three days after the May 23 protest on Slavija Square, which police estimated drew more than 100,000 people, and after more than twenty people were arrested in clashes at the end of the protest.

Vucic is in China from May 24 to 28 at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, his longest visit to the country since taking office in 2017. During the visit, 33 agreements, two strategic memoranda and two joint declarations are scheduled to be signed. The president told reporters he had been preparing the visit for 14 months and that the reaction to the protests would not affect his current obligations, but that after returning to Belgrade “hard conversations await with both the party and the family.”

How the party leadership is reading the statement

Within the Serbian Progressive Party, Vucic’s resignation remark drew no immediate formal reaction. National Assembly Speaker Ana Brnabic, currently on an official visit to Brussels, had not commented by the time this piece went to press. From SNS president Milos Vucevic’s office, the brief statement to RTS said that “the president made the remark in the atmosphere following difficult days” and that “the party stands firmly behind him regardless of any decision.” Party officials who agreed to speak without being named say the remark was a personal moment, not a political announcement, but that the party is reckoning with the possibility that Vucic ends his mandate early and opens the field for presidential elections in autumn 2026.

In the opposition, the statement was received with scepticism. Zdravko Ponos of Serbia Centre said Vucic “has already tendered symbolic resignations six times; a seventh would have to be concrete.” Marinika Tepic of the Party of Freedom and Justice, who on Tuesday filed a request for the dismissal of the police director, stressed that any real resignation would have to be submitted to the Assembly with a signature and a date, not casually mentioned to reporters in Beijing. Miroslav Aleksic of the People’s Movement of Serbia added that “the resignation could be read as a tactical manoeuvre ahead of elections” if Vucic does not take a formal step within a week.

What the procedure foresees if Vucic actually resigns

Under the Serbian Constitution, the president can resign, ending his term, and submit that resignation to the Speaker of the Assembly. After a resignation, the duties of the president are performed by the Speaker of the Assembly, and an election for a new president must be held within no less than 30 and no more than 60 days of the resignation. In that case Ana Brnabic would be acting president, which would also raise the question of electing a new Speaker.

Politically, a resignation would mean presidential elections would be held before the regular parliamentary ones, crossing the election cycles. According to an analysis published by the Institute for Democracy Serbia two weeks ago, that scenario is tactically more favourable to the ruling side than the inverse sequence, because a win in the presidential race becomes a flywheel for the parliamentary one. The opposition, in that case, would have the smallest window in which to agree on a joint candidate, a structure that benefits the ruling side.

It is worth keeping in mind that Vucic has twice publicly mentioned a possible resignation during his second term. The first was in 2019, in the midst of the “One in Five Million” protests; the second in 2022, before the formation of the Ana Brnabic government. In neither case was a resignation formally submitted, an additional reason for caution in reading the current statement as a real announcement. A source close to the president, from the top of the SNS, who agreed to speak without being named, said any formal decision, if one follows at all, would be taken only after the return from China and after talks with the party and coalition leadership.

The president returns to Belgrade on May 28, after a closing visit to Chinese electric vehicle production in Shenzhen. Reactions from the party and the opposition will firm up after that date.