Vucic Signals Separate Elections and Imminent Resignation
The president says he will call parliamentary then presidential elections and resign within days, while the opposition and students read his proposed dates as a delaying tactic before autumn.
- Aleksandar Vucic signaled separate elections, parliamentary first and presidential second, and a resignation within a few days once the parliamentary cycle is called.
- He expects to call the vote in August or September, with balloting in October or November 2026.
- Under the constitution, the speaker of parliament takes over after the president resigns, and elections must be held within 90 days.
- The opposition and students in blockade want a firm date in advance and see the plan as an attempt to split the protests from the parties.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on July 10 that the next elections would be held separately, most likely parliamentary first and presidential only afterward, and that he would resign from the presidency within a few days of calling the parliamentary cycle. He expects to schedule the vote for August or September, with citizens reaching the ballot boxes in October or November of this year.
At least in form, that meets one of the central demands of the opposition and the students in blockade: that elections be held at all. What remains disputed is everything else, the sequence, the dates, and the conditions under which the country goes to the polls.
What the president is actually proposing
Vucic specified that he intends to campaign from the position of, as he put it, an ordinary citizen, and that he will help the Serbian Progressive Party win another four years in office. The message is therefore twofold: a withdrawal from the highest state office and, at the same time, a firm presence at the center of the party campaign.
Constitutional procedure leaves little room for improvisation here. After the president resigns, the speaker of the National Assembly temporarily assumes the duty and then sets the date of the snap presidential vote. The law is equally clear on timing: the ballot must be held within 90 days. That is why the question of exactly when the resignation arrives, and when the parliamentary elections are called, is far more than a procedural detail, because the entire autumn calendar hinges on it.
The order the president mentions, parliamentary first and presidential second, is not a neutral move. It separates two votes that, held on the same day, would give the opposition a single frame for mobilization. Split apart, they are harder to fuse into one message across the electorate.
Why does the opposition see a trap in the dates?
The answer lies in what the announcement leaves out, namely a firm date. Opposition parties want every actor to know in advance, and at the same time, when the vote will be held, so that all sides have equal conditions and equal campaign time. A plan that speaks of August or September for the call, and of October or November for the vote, leaves wide room for maneuver to whoever controls the timing.
The opposition also reads the plan as an attempt to separate the students in blockade from the political parties. Students have demanded elections and a resignation since the start of the protests triggered by the collapse of the canopy at the railway station in Novi Sad, and their message has stood apart from party structures throughout. An offer of separate elections, by this reading, could serve to route those two currents into different calendars and different campaigns.
On the other side, the government insists there is no stalling and that every demand for elections is being met, only within constitutional limits and in the order the president considers logical. Who is right will become clear on the day the date is finally known, because in electoral arithmetic even a single month can amount to an entire campaign. Do you believe separate elections will produce fairer conditions, or merely stretch the uncertainty into the autumn?
