Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic resigned Sunday to run for prime minister in the October 25 snap election, a key demand of student-led protests. Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic becomes acting president for up to three months, during which a presidential election must be called.
The student-led movement was sparked by the November 2024 collapse of a canopy at Novi Sad railway station, which killed 16 people and was widely blamed on corruption. The resulting protests were among Serbia’s largest since Slobodan Milosevic’s fall from power in 2000, at times drawing hundreds of thousands; calls for a transparent investigation grew into demands for snap elections.
Vucic cut short his five-year term to campaign, though the law did not require him to resign. He heads the electoral list of his Serbian Progressive Party and is its candidate for prime minister. Minutes before stepping down, he used constitutional powers to pardon 49 people, saying 23 were connected to the protests. Those pardoned included students and party loyalists suspected of protest-related offences.
