💢 Vucic to 'pull a Putin'? - Serbian President Expected to Run for Prime Minister after resigning as

💢 Vucic to 'pull a Putin'? - Serbian President Expected to Run for Prime Minister after resigning as President - triggering early, favourable elections rather than complete his presidential term which ends at the end of May 2027.

After Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced he will step down in the coming weeks, many believe he intends to maintain his long rule by running for the premiership in the next elections.

Widespread speculation that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic plans to seek the position of prime minister has followed his weekend announcement that he will step down as head of state soon.

“I will only remain president for a few more weeks, and then I will resign,” Vucic told a rally of thousands of supporters of his ruling Serbian Progressive Party, SNS in Belgrade on Saturday.

Vucic’s government has been under serious pressure from sustained mass protests since the November 2024 Novi Sad railway station disaster. His second term as president ends next year and according to the law, he can’t run as a presidential candidate again.

Vucic didn’t say he was aiming to take over the premier’s role but told SNS supporters that “in the upcoming elections – if they ask me to and if they want me to – I will join you in helping to win the people’s trust”.

However, Kathleen Van Brempt, an MEP from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, declared that “Vucic and his party have no intention of giving up power”.

Van Brempt claimed that Vucic is seeking to “install a loyal proxy as president, continue to rule from behind the scenes, and eventually return as prime minister”.

Vucic’s allies have stated in recent weeks that the populist-nationalist leader, whose party has been in power since 2012, should become prime minister after leaving the presidency.

SNS chief Milos Vucevic, said on June 11 that “the natural choice is for Vucic to become prime minister”.

A few days later, parliament speaker Ana Brnabic said that she “sincerely hopes that Vucic will accept our invitation and appeals from us and from the Serbian Progressive Party to be our candidate for prime minister”.

In January, Vucic told TV Informer that he could be a prime ministerial candidate at the next elections. “That possibility exists if public opinion polls show that Serbia would head in the wrong direction if I were not the candidate,” he said.

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