Serbia’s strongman leader, Aleksandar Vucic, resigned as the Balkan nation’s president on Sunday, a move that allows him to keep his grip on power by taking over as prime minister if, as expected, his governing party wins a parliamentary election in October.

Serbia’s Constitution bars Mr. Vucic, who was first elected president in 2017, from seeking a third five-year term, but it does not restrict him from returning as prime minister, a post he held twice before.

Mr. Vucic, Europe’s longest-serving leader outside the former Soviet Union, has been under pressure for nearly two years from student-led protesters seeking to break his 14-year grip on Serbia. But, having failed to topple him through street protests, Mr. Vucic’s opponents now face the prospect of his strengthening his hold as prime minister.

On paper, Serbia’s presidency is largely ceremonial, with real executive power vested in the head of government. Under Mr. Vucic, however, real power has always rested with him, regardless of his formal position, thanks to his control of the Serbian Progressive Party, the country’s dominant political force.

Saying that he had taken off just 20 days in 15 years and was tired, Mr. Vucic appeared on state television Sunday evening and was shown signing a document that said, “I hereby submit my resignation from the office of President of the Republic.” He said he would hand over his duties on Monday to Ana Brnabic, the speaker of Serbia’s Parliament and a longtime loyalist.

A former radical nationalist who served under Serbia’s authoritarian leader Slobodan Milosevic during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, Mr. Vucic has retreated from wartime dreams of creating “Greater Serbia.” But he has resisted European and American pressure to accept the independence of Kosovo, formerly part of Serbia. He also has testy relations with neighboring Bosnia and Croatia, which Serbia fought in the 1990s when Yugoslavia, to which they all belonged, disintegrated.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Supported by

Advertisement