Politik am Balkan: Serbiens Präsident Vucic zurückgetreten

In Serbia's EU candidate country, President Aleksandar Vucic's term came to an end as expected, according to the source <source b6b2c4ca-6fd>. Vucic announced his resignation on a state television station, RTS, stating "Today is the day I am stepping down." A date for the new presidential election has not been set yet, but it must occur within three months as per the constitution.

His last official act was to grant amnesty to 49 people, including 23 who faced prosecution related to opposition student protests. The authoritarian leader plans to run as his party's candidate in the early parliamentary election on October 25th and become the country's Prime Minister if elected. Acting President Ana Brnabic, a political ally of Vucic, will temporarily take over Vucic's role.

Experts believe this move aims to consolidate Vucic's power. Vucic's presidential tenure would have ended next year, and after two terms, he cannot run again. The country's interior minister faced significant pressure from a largely student-led protest movement after a railway station roof collapsed on November 1st, 2024, killing 16 people.

Protesters blamed government corruption and bureaucratic incompetence for the incident and demanded Vucic's resignation. Vucic dissolved the parliament at the beginning of September and scheduled the early parliamentary elections for October 25th, which are not typically held every four years. The last two parliamentary elections - in December 2023 and April 2022 - were also called by Vucic.

Vucic has been maintaining a tug-of-war policy between the EU, the US, and Russia. He recently called Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to secure continued gas deliveries from Russia to Serbia. However, he also arranged cooperation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his official visit to Belgrade in August. The Serbian government faced criticism from several EU representatives for promoting the recently deceased, war crimes convict Ratko Mladic, in a Bosnian-Serbian context.

Mladic was buried with military honors in Belgrade. Vucic has been politically active in Serbia for decades, serving as Information Minister under former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic from 1998 to 2000, Defense Minister from 2012 to 2013, and Prime Minister from 2014 to 2017. He was first elected as President in 2017, with his second term in office beginning in 2022. The presidential term lasts five years in Serbia.