Serbia's student movement sweeps to power as Vučić concedes

Belgrade — BELGRADE — Serbia's student-led movement declared victory in Sunday's snap parliamentary election, ending 14 years of dominance by Aleksandar Vučić's right-wing populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Vučić conceded less than two hours after polls closed, telling supporters that preliminary figures put the Students' List on course for 135 to 140 seats in the 250-seat parliament — an outright majority — against 105 for his own list.

"It is clear that we have lost these elections," he said, according to Al Jazeera. He also blamed foreign powers for the result, describing it as "a revolution carried out with the direct support of various European countries and the U.S. deep state". He offered no evidence for the claim.

The movement grew out of the collapse of a concrete canopy at Novi Sad railway station on 1 November 2024, which killed 16 people and was widely blamed on corruption. Nearly two years of protests — among the largest since Slobodan Milošević fell in 2000 — hardened into a political platform promising to fight corruption, depoliticise public institutions and restore citizens' rights. Vučić, who had dismissed the protesters as "blockaders", resigned the presidency in September and called the early vote, citing what he termed "major turbulence on the domestic political scene".

Turnout was the highest for a Serbian parliamentary election in more than three decades. Election officials said nearly 65% of the 6.4 million registered voters had cast ballots by 6:00 p.m., two hours before polls closed, surpassing the just over 61% recorded in 1993, The Hindu reported. A final pre-election rally in Belgrade on Thursday drew around 150,000 people, according to an independent protest monitor.

Thousands celebrated in the capital on Sunday night, with honking cars and fireworks, Africanews reported. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen congratulated the Students' List, saying Brussels stood ready to support reforms on the rule of law, media freedom and the fight against corruption. Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar, whose own April victory ended Viktor Orbán's rule, also pledged support.

Most of the list's 250 candidates are academics and arts professionals with little political experience; the campaign was led by Ilija Srdanović, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad. The near-term test is procedural: final results must be certified, a prime minister-designate named and a government confirmed by the new parliament. What a cabinet of political novices does with an outright majority — and how the SNS, still controlling much of the state apparatus, responds — is the next decision point to watch.