Serbia student election win topples Vucic after long rule

The Serbia student election win is now a matter of record: the Students' List took a clear majority in Sunday's snap parliamentary vote, and longtime leader Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat on election night. According to Reuters, with almost all ballots counted, the student-backed list won 52.7 percent of the vote and 139 seats in the 250-seat parliament, while the alliance led by Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party took 39.2 percent and 97 seats. A majority requires 126 seats, so the result gives the Students' List room to form a government without a coalition partner. Minority parties hold the remaining seats. On election night, Vucic himself put the student total at between 135 and 140 seats. An earlier Reuters report carried the same concession.

From a collapsed canopy to a governing majority

The protests began on the streets after a concrete canopy collapsed at the railway station in Novi Sad in November 2024, killing 16 people. Students blamed graft and a lack of accountability for the disaster, and their protests grew into the largest demonstrations Serbia had seen in a generation. The station was part of a line linking Belgrade with Budapest, a project championed by Vucic that protesters treated as an emblem of corruption turned deadly. Vucic called the snap election in September after nearly two years of pressure, betting that voters would stick with the party that had governed since he became prime minister in 2014 and president in 2017. The Belgrade demonstrations were part of a wider wave of protest across Europe, with crowds also filling streets from Paris to Tirana.

Student assemblies chose the list's candidates. Its candidates include university professors, actors and farmers, and the list is led by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic, according to Reuters. At home, the list campaigned on rooting out graft and improving schools. Its public statements said less about foreign policy, leaving open questions about how a government led by newcomers would handle Serbia's ties abroad.

Few polls pointed to a win on this scale. An Ipsos survey published on Thursday put Vucic's party on 47 percent and the students on 40 percent, while other surveys put the students in front, and analysts described the race as a watershed moment for the country. Vucic spent the campaign accusing the list of acting for foreign backers, a charge the students denied, while his party denied accusations of corruption, repression and spying on opponents.

Celebrations, and the harder part that follows

Turnout reached around 70 percent, the highest level reported since the breakup of Yugoslavia. Tens of thousands of people filled streets in Belgrade and other towns on Monday after the concession, Reuters reports. University administrator Marijana Radovanovic Pajovic told Reuters she still did not believe the result after years of pressure from the government. By six in the evening, turnout had already passed 64.9 percent, according to the election commission.

Governing will test a campaign built for protest. The new parliament must still produce a cabinet, and formal results from the Republic Electoral Commission are expected in the coming days. Vucic, who had dominated Serbian politics for more than a decade, told supporters his party would stay united in opposition. He blamed independent media and alleged interference from abroad for the loss.

The result ends a long run in power for the SNS, which has governed since 2012. Vucic told supporters his party had won around 1.7 million votes to about 2.2 million for the Students' List. Putin had endorsed Vucic ahead of the vote, according to AP. Reuters notes that few observers have a clear picture of how the new leaders will govern, since the list was assembled for protest rather than administration.

The result also reaches beyond Serbia's borders. Serbia wants to join the European Union but has stayed out of the bloc's sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, and Moscow has long counted Belgrade as a friendly capital. Serbia has also balanced closer ties with China, a major investor, while leaving the door open to EU membership. The Kremlin praised Vucic on Monday and said it hoped the new rulers would see cooperation with Russia as in Serbia's interest, Reuters reports. That balancing act, between Brussels, Moscow and Beijing, now passes to a government with no track record in foreign affairs. How the student-backed government answers that question will be one of its first foreign policy tests.

For now, the campaign that started with a demand for accountability after a station canopy fell has won the votes to run the country. The Serbia student election win gives that demand a parliamentary majority behind it. What it does with that power, from cleaning up public contracts to staffing ministries, is the part no protest can settle in advance. The list had gained support well beyond campuses before the vote, according to Reuters. The count is nearly complete, the concession is public, and the work of governing is next.