Vucic Announces Resignation: My Last Days as President
At the ruling party rally outside parliament, the president for the first time formally said he will resign within weeks and call snap elections.
- President Aleksandar Vucic said on June 27 at a rally outside parliament that these are his last days and weeks as head of state.
- He announced he will resign within weeks and call snap elections.
- He promised an average wage of 1,400 euros and a pension of 650 euros within less than two years.
- The opposition and independent media read the move as pre-election tactics.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced that within a matter of weeks he will resign from office and that snap elections will be called. He made the statement on Friday, June 27, at a Serbian Progressive Party rally titled “Serbia, One Family,” held outside the National Assembly building in Belgrade.
“These are my last days and weeks as president,” Vucic told supporters from the stage. It was the first time he formally confirmed, and at the party’s central event, a scenario that had circulated in political circles for months: an early end to his term and a new electoral cycle ahead of schedule.
Alongside the resignation announcement, the president laid out part of the party’s political program for the coming campaign. He promised higher wages and pensions, citing a target of an average salary of 1,400 euros and a pension of 650 euros within less than two years. He also said that on Monday, June 29, he will present a new package of support measures for citizens, tying the calendar of announcements directly to the rally.
What does the resignation announcement actually mean?
A resignation by the president of the republic, if submitted, triggers a constitutionally prescribed procedure and the temporary transfer of powers to the speaker of parliament, along with the obligation to call a presidential election. Vucic, however, also spoke of snap elections, which raises the question of whether the announcement applies only to the presidency or to a broader electoral arrangement that would include parliament as well.
For now this is a political announcement from the stage, not a formal act. He did not specify an exact date for the resignation, leaving the timeframe at “a few weeks.” That very vagueness gives the authorities room to choose the moment that best suits them in the electoral calendar.
Pro-government outlets, among them Kurir and Informer, described the rally’s message as a show of unity and gratitude to voters. Special broadcasts close to the government emphasized a tone of triumph and continuity, with the promised economic targets framed as the central theme of the upcoming campaign.
Why does the opposition doubt the motive?
Independent media and opposition parties read the announcement differently. For them, the declared resignation is above all a tactical move, an attempt to seize the initiative and the pace of the campaign at a moment chosen by the government itself, rather than under pressure from the street or the calendar. In that light, the election announcement is not a concession but an electoral strategy.
The backdrop is months of protests and tension on the political scene, during which the question of early elections became one of the central points of dispute between the government and the opposition. The announcement from the “Serbia, One Family” rally thus fits into a longer story about who sets the terms and the timing of the next trip to the polls.
Until the formal act and an official date, the announcement remains a political statement with strong symbolic weight. Will you read it as the end of an era, or as the opening of yet another campaign on the government’s terms?
