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Serbian Students Win Election, Sparking European Interest
· Confirmed
In Short: In a surprise victory, Serbian students' list won parliamentary elections, ousting President Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party.
In a significant political shift, Serbian students' list emerged victorious in the parliamentary elections, marking a historic win over President Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). According to Al Jazeera, the student-led movement, which began as protests against Vucic and his government, remained independent and rejected traditional political alliances.
Eurasiareview and Balkaninsight reported that Vucic conceded defeat, acknowledging preliminary results showing the Student List leading with around 135-140 seats compared to 105 for the SNS. Vucic's concession came after a press conference where he accused unnamed European countries and Serbia's independent media of interference.
Newsweek noted that Vucic, who resigned last month, had pushed officials in Belgrade to help advance a plan promoted by Jared Kushner to build a $500 million hotel complex in Belgrade. This move was seen as an attempt to secure his return to the post of prime minister, which he left in 2017.
Both Al Jazeera and Balkaninsight highlighted the students' strategy of remaining independent from domestic political parties and international superpowers such as Russia, China, the EU, and the US. This approach, according to Al Jazeera, ensured the movement's success where others had failed.
Eurasiareview and Balkaninsight reported that the election watchdog CRTA announced preliminary results showing the Student List winning 51.5% of the vote, while Vucic's United Serbia won 40.2%. Vucic, in a press conference, accused the US's deep state and European countries of supporting the revolution.
Al Jazeera noted that the student protests were initially triggered by the death of 16 people in a train canopy collapse at a newly renovated station in 2024. However, the movement's anger had deeper roots, stemming from local elites' corruption and mismanagement, and international corporations offering substandard jobs.
Balkaninsight reported that Radomir Saicic, a Student List candidate, said, “Tonight, the citizens of Serbia have shown that no obstacle is greater than their will, no fear is stronger than their courage, and no force can forever overpower a people determined to take their destiny into their own hands.” Saicic described the outcome as “a victory for the belief that Serbia can and must be different.”
Despite Vucic's claims of irregularities and pressure on voters, the Student List's victory was clear. The movement's success has drawn attention from European countries and could serve as a model for other student-led movements across the continent.
The Student List has already started negotiations to form the government, marking a new chapter in Serbia's political landscape. The movement's independence and grassroots approach have set a precedent for future political strategies in Serbia and beyond.
What's confirmed
- “I would like to inform you that, based on the stratified sample, it is clear that we have lost this election,” said Aleksandar Vucic, former president and leader of the Serbian Progressive Party’s “United Serbia” electoral list.
- Speaking at around 9:30 pm on Sunday, Vucic announced preliminary results suggesting that the opposition Student List was leading in Serbia’s closely watched snap parliamentary elections, with around 135-140 seats compared to 105 for the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
- Serbian election watchdog CRTA said that according to preliminary results, Student List won 51.5 per cent and Vucic’s United Serbia won 40.2 per cent.
- “This was a verification of a revolution that they carried out directly with support of various European countries, and the US’s deep state, the one that is against President Trump,” Vucic said in a press conference.
What's still developing
- By March 2025, suffering more and more attacks, the students called for people to establish citizens’ assemblies akin to the student plenaries, in order to aid them in seeking justice for the 16 killed in Novi Sad.
- The students made it clear they rejected being incorporated into a type of leadership-based politics that was failing all across Europe.
- Students and their families had been squeezed from all sides: by local elites whose corruption and mismanagement eroded the standard of living and plunged them into precarity; and by international corporations, which fed that corruption, while offering substandard jobs with little prospect of social mobility.
- But Serbian students did not just rely on their opponent’s overconfidence.
- A nationwide student movement shook the foundations of a deeply entrenched government and on Sunday, it dealt it an unprecedented electoral blow – something opposition parties had failed to do for more than a decade.
- "Vucic's rhetoric suggests that he will likely join Orban and other populist European politicians who enjoy Trump's support but will now find themselves in opposition to what they often label 'globalist-led structures,'" he said.
- In each episode, two political heavyweights from across the EU face off to propose a diversity of opinions and spark conversations around the most important issues of EU affairs and the wider European political life.
- LED screens in the corridors announced plenaries and alternative lectures for students.
- The students were seen as naive, irrelevant, disaffected youth.
- Associating with them would have been damaging to the movement.
- “It is about the people, all those who believed when things were hardest, who did not give up when they were told nothing could change, and who, despite everything, continued to fight,” Saicic said.