After 2 Years of Protests, Serb PM Quits—With an Agenda

Serbia's populist President Aleksandar Vucic resigned Sunday to pursue a bid to become prime minister in an upcoming early parliamentary election that will test his firm rule in the Balkan country, which was rattled by nearly two years of protests. Vucic's second presidential term would otherwise end in May next year. He is prohibited by the constitution from seeking a third term and said he was resigning to lead his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party in the Oct. 25 ballot, the AP reports. He had announced his intention to step down, setting up the early election, in July.

The governing populists face a major challenge at the ballot box from a youth-backed movement that led the protests triggered by the Nov. 1, 2024, train station canopy collapse that killed 16 people in the northern city of Novi Sad. University students demanded accountability for the tragedy. Their push for justice and against corruption has grown into a strong movement that will attempt to oust Vucic's government after 14 years in power. Vucic himself has been either prime minister or president for the past 12 years. "I look to the future with joy, new victories await us," he told a crowd in Belgrade on Sunday as they chanted his name. "Let's beat them more convincingly than ever before."