Vucic Sets First Timeframe for Calling Elections
Serbia's president says elections will be called within days or weeks, without naming an exact date. He also announced he will resign before the campaign, entering it as an ordinary citizen.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in Belgrade on August 6 that elections could be called within the next few days or the next few weeks. He did not give an exact date.
He made the statement to reporters after receiving young athletes from Serbia and the region who are taking part in the “Serbia Is Calling You 2026” camp. In the same appearance, he announced that he will resign as president before joining the election campaign, entering it as an ordinary citizen. He claims he is the only president in Europe willing to take that step.
“I don’t think anything could be fairer than that,” Vucic said.
Asked what comes after the campaign, he answered briefly: “Whether I continue doing this in some other capacity is up to the citizens.”
What’s new compared to earlier announcements
Until now, Vucic had only spoken about the order of moves, not the timing. That sequence remains the same as he has described it:
- the Government’s resignation
- the calling of parliamentary elections
- his own resignation as president of the Republic
What is new is that he has, for the first time, put a timeframe on the second step, a range running from a few days to a few weeks. The range is not precise, but it is the first time it has been stated at all, so from this point the election cycle can be discussed in terms of weeks rather than in the abstract.
This connects to something reported earlier: Vucic had previously said his opponents are the favorites and pledged to congratulate them after the election. His announcement of a pre campaign resignation gives that assessment a different weight: a man who claims to be running as an underdog is, at the same time, announcing he will enter the campaign without the office that gives him an advantage. Under the Constitution, when a president’s term ends before its full duration expires, the Speaker of the National Assembly temporarily takes over the duties, meaning his resignation would start a second electoral clock alongside the parliamentary one.
Office holder campaigning, the law, and ‘foolish’ recommendations
He explicitly rejected accusations that he is running an office holder campaign, in a statement to RTS.
“I am not engaged in any office holder campaign, I will carry out the job of president of Serbia until the last day of my mandate,” Vucic stressed.
He added that he is doing his job and will not accept demands to be lazy, and that he will comply with all recommendations and laws, even ones he personally considers foolish, because “the law is the law.” That wording leaves him room to keep making field visits without calling them campaigning. The question of where the president’s job ends and pre election appearances begin was never settled in previous cycles, and the resignation announcement is the first attempt to resolve it with a date instead of an interpretation.
Regarding his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, he said he has no voters in Sipovo, Novo Selo, Janja, or Cipuljici.
Public opinion polls and the attack on Lompar and Protic
Vucic said opinion polls serve him as a tool for changing himself, while for his opponents they “boost the lack of their own existence,” and that they release surveys on the principle of “wishful thinking.” The wording is his own and is quoted verbatim, because it carries exactly the claim he wanted to make: that his rivals use polls to make up for what they lack on the ground.
In the same appearance, he criticized historian Milan St. Protic and Faculty of Philology professor Milo Lompar, calling them false national intellectuals who, in his assessment, always pursue an anti state policy, only covertly. Such people, he said, will do anything against Serbia while always claiming they care most about Serbian national interests, all while supporting an independent Kosovo and Operation Storm.
Responding to statements from Croatia, made around the anniversary of that military and police operation, that a new “Storm” would be organized, he said they could “hang that on a cat’s tail.” He also said the victims must not be forgotten, neither Serbian nor others’, and that Serbia should respect the Croatian people while never forgetting what Serbs went through.
What happens next
The next move is the Government’s resignation, since without it there is no calling of parliamentary elections. Until that happens, the timeframe the president has set for himself is measured in days or weeks, not a date. The first official announcement carrying that date will mark the formal start of the election cycle, and only then will it be clear when Vucic steps down from office and in what capacity he enters the campaign.
