Serbia will hold snap parliamentary elections on October 18 or October 25, President Aleksandar Vucic said on August 20, setting a potential date for a vote that comes after more than a year and a half of regular anti-government protests.

The exact date will be announced in the coming days, Vucic said in a live interview with state broadcaster RTS.

"The parliamentary elections in Serbia will be held, as things stand, either on October 18 or 25, and we will know in a few days," Vucic said.

The parliamentary election was originally due to be held in late 2027.

Vucic did not say when he would resign as president to trigger an early presidential election. He said on June 27 that he would step down within weeks and that Serbia would hold early parliamentary and presidential elections.

Vucic, who has dominated Serbian politics for more than a decade as either president or prime minister, is constitutionally barred from seeking a third presidential term. He will seek to return as prime minister if his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) wins the parliamentary election.

"On one list there will be the Serbian Progressive Party with its list, on the other all other political options," Vucic said, adding that coalition partners including the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) would retain the right to contest the election separately.

The announcement comes after months of regular student-led protests that began following the collapse of a concrete canopy at a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad in November 2024, killing 16 people.

The protests have grown into a broad challenge to Vucic and the ruling SNS, with student demonstrators accusing the government of corruption and demanding early elections.

The SNS retains a powerful electoral organisation and won all local elections held in 2026, although its share of the vote fell amid allegations of irregularities and intimidation at polling stations.

Opinion polls have also shown growing support for the student movement. One poll, conducted by an anti-government think tank in June and published last month, put a prospective student-backed electoral list nine percentage points ahead of the SNS.

The students have yet to announce their candidates or a detailed policy platform and have so far rejected cooperation with established opposition parties.

The ruling party is expected to benefit from its organisational strength and control of much of Serbia's media landscape, while the fragmented, pro-European opposition has struggled to offer a credible alternative.

An election in October would bring forward the parliamentary vote by about a year. The presidential election is due in early 2027.