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Aleksandar Vucic told supporters on Sunday evening that preliminary results from the parliamentary elections showed the Student List securing between 135 and 140 seats in the 250-member National Assembly. His own coalition was projected to win around 105 seats with the remainder expected to go to ethnic minority parties according to a Reuters report. Celebrations broke out in Belgrade streets with cars honking and crowds gathering as the news spread following the close of polls that saw turnout approach 70 percent the highest since the breakup of Yugoslavia.
The snap vote called by Vucic after his resignation as president in September culminated nearly two years of demonstrations that began with a deadly accident in Novi Sad. A concrete canopy at the city’s renovated railway station collapsed on November 1 2024 killing 16 people in an incident widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. The Guardian reported that the tragedy galvanized public anger and transformed scattered protests into a sustained movement against perceived authoritarianism under Vucic who has led the country since 2014.
Operating without formal leaders through citizen assemblies known as plenums the student movement fielded a list of 250 candidates drawn from professors actors farmers and other professionals. Bloomberg noted that the group which adopted a red handprint as its symbol mobilized disaffected voters and achieved roughly 52 percent of the vote compared with about 39 percent for Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party. Pre-election polls had varied but several conducted in the final weeks showed the students gaining ground as turnout surged according to data from the Centre for Research Transparency and Accountability.
Vucic who stepped down from the presidency to run as prime ministerial candidate for his party had framed the election as a choice on Serbia’s direction after more than a decade in power. Al Jazeera reported that the protests had forced his hand leading to the early vote in what became a de facto referendum on his rule. The student-backed list received backing from several established opposition parties including the Democratic Party in a broad coalition aimed at ending Serbian Progressive Party dominance.
A university professor speaking on behalf of the Student List told supporters that the voice of the people had finally been heard and that the focus now turns to building the future Reuters reported. With an absolute majority the movement is positioned to form a government without needing coalition partners. The outcome marks the most significant political shift in Serbia since Vucic first became prime minister in 2014 and later assumed the presidency in 2017.
The protests swelled into some of the largest demonstrations in a generation with hundreds of thousands marching in Belgrade in March 2025 joined by farmers and other civic groups. AFP coverage prior to the vote highlighted how the movement’s leaderless structure made it resistant to traditional political attacks and helped broaden its appeal across society. Analysts following the count indicated that the high participation rate particularly among younger voters proved decisive in the final tally.
