Brnabic Proposes Constitution Change for Vucic's Return

The European Democratic Party reacted sharply on Sunday to comments by Ana Brnabic, speaker of the National Assembly and a Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) official, who suggested Serbia’s constitution could be changed to let Aleksandar Vucic run for president again. In a statement posted on X, the pan-European centrist party said constitutions are not rewritten to suit one man’s ambitions without opening the door to autocracy.

Brnabic made the remark on Saturday while visiting SNS campaign stands in Resnik. The same day she also stopped by stands at Cvetkova market and in Borca. No election had officially been called at that point, yet the parliament speaker was already out canvassing, urging party activists and supporters to turn out and vote.

Addressing the crowd in Resnik, Brnabic floated the idea that after a parliamentary election, and a possible return by Vucic to the post of prime minister, the government could move to amend the constitution.

“We all want to vote, right? Well, then afterward, while he’s prime minister, we’ll just change the constitution so he can go back to being president. There you go, we have a solution for everything,” Brnabic said with a smile.

Can Vucic Run for President a Third Time Under the Current Constitution?

No, not without amending the basic law first. Article 116 of Serbia’s constitution limits anyone holding the office of president to two terms. Vucic’s second presidential term expires in 2027, and under the constitution as it stands he can no longer run for the office again. It is this exact provision the opposition has pointed to.

In its statement, the European Democrats argued the idea amounts to an attempt to sidestep that constitutional limit:

“Article 116 of the Serbian constitution limits everyone to two presidential terms. Constitutions protect democracy and cannot be rewritten to suit one man’s ambition without opening the door to autocracy. We believe the Serbian people will defend democratic rules and that their voice will be heard in the next election. We don’t want kings,” the pan-European centrist party said.

The statement was accompanied by an illustration showing Brnabic placing a crown on Vucic’s head, captioned “We don’t want kings,” a clear nod to fears of power concentrated in one man’s hands.

Vucic’s Earlier Statements

The idea of a constitutional revision cuts against what Vucic himself has said publicly. He has repeatedly stated he has no plans to amend the constitution and that, in his own words, he would not survive a third presidential term. In recent months he has also signaled an early parliamentary election, and on Thursday, August 20, he said voters could head to the polls on October 18 or 25, with the exact date to be confirmed in the coming days.

Vucic has also said several times that he will resign as president and will most likely run as the SNS candidate for prime minister. According to him, the parliamentary and presidential elections will be held separately, with a new head of state to be elected by late December this year, or by early February 2027 at the latest.

Against that timeline, Brnabic’s remark raises a question that had not previously been put officially: whether a reshuffling of power after the election could also involve changing the constitutional provision that concerns Vucic personally, and doing so before a new president has even been elected.

Pressure From the Student Movement

An early parliamentary election has been one of the core demands of the student protesters who have led the wave of demonstrations in Serbia since November 2024, when a canopy collapsed at the train station in Novi Sad. In May 2025, students formally called for an early parliamentary election and announced they would field their own student list.

The Srpske vesti news portal has previously reported that Vucic rejects the idea of a purge of the government, while the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV), a party close to the opposition, is charting the opposite course. Brnabic’s remark, however offhand it may have sounded on the campaign trail, fits the same pattern: the ruling party’s leadership is openly weighing constitutional moves that reach beyond a single election cycle, while the opposition sees in it an attempt to keep power in the same hands indefinitely.

As of publication, SNS had issued no official response to the European Democrats’ statement. Whether Brnabic’s remark remains an isolated comment on the campaign trail or turns into a concrete proposal will likely depend on exactly when the election is called and who ends up holding which office afterward.