Embattled Serbian president resigns, paving way for early elections

Vučić's presidency was due to expire next year. Under Serbia's constitution, presidential elections must be held no more than three months after his resignation.This means Serbians will go to the polls twice before the end of the year.Vučić said the presidential election will take place more than a month after the snap parliamentary election in late October, itself called in response to the protests, which had added calls for a vote to their list of demands.He had earlier announced that he planned to run in that election as Progressive Party's leader, leaving the possibility he could retain a position at the top of Serbian politics.Parliamentary speaker Ana Brnabić, also a Progressive Party member, will assume the role of interim president until a new one is elected.Vučić used his constitutional powers to pardon 49 people, including 23 students and party loyalists suspected of offences related to what he called the "terrible events we have gone through over the past year and a half", according to Serbian public broadcaster RTS.The upcoming parliamentary elections will pit Vučić's Progressive Party against a student-led, anti-corruption movement called Students Win and a coalition of pro-Western opposition parties known as Serbia" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="210378" data-entity-type="organization">European Serbia.Vucic has been a fixture of Serbian politics for more than a decade, becoming prime minister in 2014, before being elected to his first term as president in 2017.