Their struggle for justice and against corruption<\/a> has grown into a strong movement that will attempt to oust the SNS after 14 years in power. Vu\u010di\u0107 has been either prime minister or president for the past 12 years.<\/p>\n\u201cI am resigning the duty of the president of the republic,\u201d Vu\u010di\u0107 said, reading the text of his resignation.<\/p>\n
The ballot in October will be held against a backdrop of high political tensions as Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s populists seek to remain in office despite widespread discontent. His decision to run for prime minister is seen as an attempt to retain a top position and boost his party\u2019s chances against the student movement.<\/p>\n
Vu\u010di\u0107 supporters light flares outside the presidency in Belgrade after his resignation. Photograph: \u0110or\u0111e Kojadinovi\u0107\/Reuters<\/p>\n
Vu\u010di\u0107 has toured the country in recent weeks with live coverage on pro-government media. He has opened new roads, offered assistance money and cheaper medicines and visited voters in their homes.<\/p>\n
The prime minister in Serbia is formally more powerful than the president, but Vu\u010di\u0107 still played a dominant role during his two five-year terms, sometimes presiding over government sessions and routinely announcing all important decisions and plans.<\/p>\n
Serbia\u2019s independent Bureau for Social Research has filed a complaint alleging that Vu\u010di\u0107 has abused a public institution as president to promote his party, which he has dismissed. There has been no response from the anti-corruption authorities, which are under government control.<\/p>\n
The new acting president will be Ana Brnabi\u0107, a close Vu\u010di\u0107 ally and former prime minister who is the outgoing speaker of parliament. Once a new parliament is elected, the new speaker will take over from Brnabi\u0107, appoint the prime minister and schedule a presidential vote.<\/p>\n
Vu\u010di\u0107 and his party have been accused of rampant corruption, organised crime links and a clampdown on democratic freedoms, including critical media. The SNS has gradually taken control of all state institutions since coming to power in 2012, while denying abuse of office and repeatedly pledging to fight corruption.<\/p>\n
The student-backed election list includes little-known experts, professors, teachers, athletes and other individuals from all walks of life. Groups of students have been touring the country on bicycles as part of their campaign urging the rule of law and an end to corruption.<\/p>\n
Analysts say the student group and Vu\u010di\u0107 are polling closelyin a referendum-like atmosphere. Also running are Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s allies, the Socialist party, a pro-EU opposition alliance and several smaller groups.<\/p>\n
Authorities have pushed hard against protesters with police violence and detentions, as Vu\u010di\u0107, without offering evidence, has accused his opponents and critical media of intending to destroy the state under unspecified foreign influence.<\/p>\n
He told Serbia\u2019s state RTS television on Sunday that foreign powers and unidentified people in the country planned to stir unrest on election night.<\/p>\n
Serbia\u2019s efforts to join the EU have stalled under Vu\u010di\u0107 because of democratic backsliding and a refusal to join sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Serbia\u2019s populist president, Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, has resigned to pursue an attempt to become prime minister in an early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-784750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}