Who will stand against Aleksandar Vučić for the position of Prime Minister of Serbia? This is one of the key questions emerging ahead of the snap parliamentary elections announced for October or November. Vučić’s message that he will resign from the presidency in a few weeks likely indicates that he will enter the race for Prime Minister on behalf of the SNS (Serbian Progressive Party).
Meanwhile, analysts believe that the student movement will look for a stronger candidate for Head of Government than Vladan Đokić, Rector of Belgrade University, or Milo Lompar, a professor at the Faculty of Philology, given that they would be facing a dominant figure who would be difficult to defeat.
At an SNS rally titled “Serbia, One Family” in Belgrade on Saturday, Vučić stated, among other things, that these were his “last weeks as President of the Republic” and that he would help the SNS win the public’s trust in the upcoming elections “if they ask me to.”
Given that everyone in the SNS, led by party president Miloš Vučević, has expressed a desire for Vučić to be the candidate for Prime Minister, it is highly probable that this is exactly what will happen. However, while it is virtually certain who will lead the SNS list in the snap parliamentary elections, it remains entirely uncertain who will be the prime ministerial candidate for the so-called “student list.”
Lacmanović: I believe Đokić and Lompar are not adequate candidates for Prime Minister
Predrag Lacmanović, Programme Director of the “Faktor Plus” agency, told Blic that various names had been floated in the media recently as potential leaders of the student list, with Vladan Đokić and Milo Lompar being discussed the most.
“However, I don’t think they are adequate candidates for the role of Prime Minister. The electorate that leans towards the student movement expects a stronger name, keeping in mind that on the opposing side stands a dominant figure in the form of Aleksandar Vučić. Since the student movement has not yet published its list, we can only speculate as to who their candidate for Prime Minister will be,” Lacmanović assessed for Blic.
As he noted, the students involved in the blockades certainly have some names in mind.
“They likely also face challenges regarding the compilation of the student list because a student movement is not a political party with a hierarchy, leadership, and established leaders as potential prime ministerial candidates. It is possible they are considering a non-party figure, which is something the SNS has also done in previous elections,” Lacmanović stated.
“The position of Prime Minister requires knowledge, experience, charisma, managerial skills…”
He added that the student movement could potentially find a candidate through public opinion research.
“However, it could also turn out that such a candidate might not perform well in media appearances during the election campaign. Acting behind the scenes is one thing; performing in front of the cameras is quite another. The position of Prime Minister requires knowledge, experience, charisma, managerial skills, and acceptability to a large number of people. There is also the question of how much backing this candidate will receive from the people they have worked with so far. The students will likely serve a supervisory role,” Lacmanović analysed.
According to him, a referendum-like atmosphere during the parliamentary elections is by no means guaranteed.
“To have a referendum-like atmosphere, you must have candidates who can go toe-to-toe with one another. Even political parties have found it difficult to find such an opponent. To me, Đokić and Lompar look more like presidential candidates than prime ministerial ones,” Lacmanović concluded.
Đokić long rumoured as a candidate, then forced to deny being the student leader
As a reminder, Đokić was widely discussed in public this spring as a serious candidate for office representing the students in blockade. In early April, he even stated that he was “ready to be a presidential candidate if students and citizens requested it.”
However, a month and a half later, Đokić released a statement in the middle of the night, announcing that he was “not the leader or representative of the students,” though he stood firmly with them and the academic community.
(Blic, 30.06.2026)