Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday that he would step down within weeks, paving the way for early elections following youth-led protests that shook his hold on power.
Vucic did not specify when exactly he would resign or when elections, either for parliament or for a new president, would be held. He has said in the past that he may leave the post amid rumors that he would try to switch to the more powerful official position of the Balkan country’s prime minister.
Vucic, who is currently serving his second term, cannot run for president again, according to Serbian electoral law. Regular presidential and parliamentary elections are expected next year.
“I will be president for a few more weeks and then I will submit my letter of resignation,” Vucic told thousands of supporters in the city of Belgrade. He said he would support his right-wing Progressive Party of Serbia in the next election.
“We will win more convincingly than before,” he said, telling the crowd that this was probably the last time he would address them as president of Serbia.
University students behind more than a year of protests against Vucic’s increasingly authoritarian rule in Serbia have been calling for early parliamentary elections for more than a year, but Vucic has so far refrained from setting a date.
