The Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, today dissolved the parliament and called for early elections on 25 October, a demand by anti-government protesters after the collapse of the Novi Sad train station in 2024.
© Lusa
09/09/2026
by
Lusa
“ Cinvoke legislative elections for 25 October”, announced Vucic in a statement in the presidency in Belgrade, quoted by the French agency AFP.
Vucic, who will resign to be a candidate for Prime Minister, said the decree will enter into force as soon as it is published in the Official Gazette.
The Head of State said that elections are necessary due to the continuing tensions and divisions in the Balkan country.
“We had ... huge turbulence. ... We need electoral results that clearly show the will of the people and the direction to which Serbia is heading,” he said, also quoted by the US agency AP.
Vucic, whose term of office would end in 2027, had announced in June that he would resign to run for Prime Minister for the conservative Progressive Party of Serbia (SNS).
The Constitution requires Vucic to resign from the position of President to run for Prime Minister, which he will shortly be doing, when he will be temporarily replaced by the President of Parliament, Ana Brnabic.
The October elections, which were scheduled for 2027, will take place in a climate of increased political tension, at a time when populists in power try to remain in government despite widespread popular discontent.
The protests began after the tragedy at the train station on November 1, 2024, which caused 16 deaths in northern Serbia.
The protesters demanded that those responsible for the collapse of the concrete pala in the city of Novi Sad be found and the end of corruption, which they attributed as the cause of poor quality remodeling work.
The almost daily protest demonstrations, which sometimes gathered hundreds of thousands of people, shook Vucic as at no other time since it came to power in 2012.
The Prime Minister, Duro Macut, requested on Monday the dissolution of the parliament of 250 Members, in the midst of tensions caused by the protests, but also by international condemnations of the tribute to Ratko Mladic.
The former Bosnian Serbian commander died on 27 August when he served a life sentence in a prison in The Hague, the Netherlands, after being convicted of war crimes and humanity.
Thousands of people, including several ministers, attended the funeral of Mladic on Monday, which has raised criticism from several countries, including Portugal, and the European Union (EU), with which Belgrade has accession negotiations.
Mladic, former military chief of the Bosnian Serb forces, was captured in 2011 in Serbia after 16 years in flight.
In 2017, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian War, which killed nearly 100,000 people.
Among his crimes are the massacre of about 8,000 Bosnian men and boys, committed in July 1995 in the Srebrenica region (east).
The Srebrenica massacre was the first genocide recognized in Europe after World War II (1936–1945).
Vucic said he believed that Serbia “chosen the right European path while preserving traditional friendships, national pride and dignity”.
“Citizens of Serbia will have the opportunity to choose from many options. Choose your future. I ask you to do so peacefully and dignifiedly”, said Vucic, according to the Spanish agency EP.
“ Whoever you choose will receive my congratulations, because I believe that preserving our democratic system, our families without division and our society is a priority for our country,” he added, before signing the two decrees.