Vucic Hosts Farewell Cocktail Ahead of Sunday Resignation

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic hosted a cocktail for the staff of his cabinet on Saturday, September 26, marking the end of his second presidential term. The news arrives a day before his announced resignation, scheduled for Sunday evening. Vucic announced the farewell himself in an Instagram post, together with a video from the gathering.

He thanked the staff in words that, judging by what he posted, also carry an admission of his own mistakes over ten years at the helm of the state.

Thank you for sticking with it even in moments when things happened that you didn’t like. I have certainly made mistakes, and every normal person does that every day. And thank you endlessly for everything. Ten years of life is not a short stretch.

Accounts of exactly where the gathering took place differ in the details. N1 and Danas report that it happened at the president’s cabinet, while Srpskainfo, citing Blic, writes that Vucic said goodbye to staff from the Presidency of Serbia. According to several sources, the songs “A sad adio” and “Cetiri godine” were performed, with dancing and a kolo, and Vucic himself, according to Srpskainfo, sang “A sad adio” together with those present.

Vucic had already announced the date of his resignation on Thursday evening, speaking to journalists in New York. “Sunday is a demanding day. On Sunday evening I’m submitting my resignation, I think it will be around eight in the evening,” he said at the time. Once he leaves office, the role of acting president passes, under the Constitution, to Ana Brnabic, the speaker of Serbia’s dissolved National Assembly, and a presidential election must be called within three months of the date of the resignation. That constitutional detail is also part of the calculation the ruling party’s leadership is making about the timing of the next election cycle. According to nova.rs, if Vucic does submit his resignation on Sunday, the presidential election could, by that outlet’s calculation, be held as early as November this year, well before the three month constitutional deadline runs out.

The part of the announcement that drew the most attention in political circles was not the farewell itself, but a message aimed at political opponents. Vucic said he had dedicated the song “Cetiri godine” to them specifically, and added that he would sing them the same song again on the evening of October 25, the day of the snap parliamentary election on which he is the lead candidate on the “Aleksandar Vucic, United Serbia” list. Judge Miodrag Majic responded to that on X.

Imagine trying to explain to someone with no context that the president of a sovereign state is telling half of its population that his election victory will bring them four more years of pain and grief.

In a separate post carried by Srpskainfo, Vucic described the farewell in his own words.

I am ending my second presidential term. Today I organized a cocktail for all the staff. I thanked those wonderful people for their enormous support and help, because without them we could not have achieved anything.

The formal resignation, based on everything announced so far, is expected on Sunday evening, around 8 PM. That step opens a three month window in which, under the Constitution, a presidential election must be held, while the date of the parliamentary election, October 25, stays unchanged. Whether the presidential election ends up being combined with one of the upcoming election dates, or held separately in November as nova.rs suggests, will depend on a decision the National Assembly makes once the resignation has been submitted.