Serbia's government asks Vucic to dissolve parliament for a snap vote

Serbia's government on Monday asked President Aleksandar Vucic to dissolve the National Assembly and call an early parliamentary election. Prime Minister Djuro Macut announced the step in a televised statement after an extraordinary cabinet meeting. Under the constitution the president may dissolve the house on a reasoned government proposal and must leave between 45 and 60 days for the campaign.

Vucic has already said the vote will fall on 18 or 25 October and that he intends to call it by 9 or 10 September. The ruling Serbian Progressive Party, at a session of its main board, has nominated him as its candidate for prime minister. He has said he will leave the presidency after scheduled state work and foreign visits and then stand on a list he wants titled “United Serbia.” If the party wins he has promised a slimmer cabinet: a prime minister and no more than 12 ministers.

A vote after two years of street pressure

Student-led protests have run for nearly two years, since the collapse of a railway-station canopy in Novi Sad in 2024 killed 16 people. The movement has demanded early elections and has accused Vucic's system of corruption and capture of institutions. Macut framed the dissolution as an answer to that demand. “If we want to mitigate tensions in society there is no better way than to ask people,” he said. He listed protests, blockades, divisions, problems in education and pressure on institutions as the reasons a “responsible government” could not ignore the call.

The opposition reads the same move as an attempt by Vucic to change jobs rather than leave power. His second presidential term was due to run to mid-2027. Resigning the presidency and winning a parliamentary majority would let him run the government directly. Savo Manojlovic, who leads the student-linked Move-Change group, said Vucic was trying to get ahead of a fall by choosing the date himself.

Vucic had already said in June that he would resign within weeks and that Serbia would hold early presidential and parliamentary votes. Monday's cabinet decision is the legal step that turns that promise into a calendar.

What the next 45 to 60 days decide

Serbia's election machinery favours the incumbent party. The Progressive Party still controls most local governments, much of the broadcast market and the state administration. The protest movement has shown it can fill streets. It has not yet shown it can turn that crowd into a list that wins seats across the country. The short campaign works against new parties and for a machine that already has offices in every municipality.

The European Union is watching for a second reason. Serbia is a candidate state. Mass funerals for convicted war criminals and repeated clashes with student columns have already tested that bid. A snap vote held on the president's timetable, with the president as the prime-ministerial candidate, will be judged in Brussels on whether the opposition can campaign, not only on the count.

Macut said the present government will keep working until a new one is elected. That is the caretaker formula. The real transfer, if there is one, is Vucic's move from the presidency to the premiership. The streets asked for an election. They are about to get one on terms the palace wrote.