The Student List’s landslide victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections has raised hopes that Serbia will mend ties with Brussels and relaunch its EU accession bid, but whether Belgrade will actually change its foreign policy remains unclear.
The movement born from months of student protest has secured an absolute majority in parliament, ending the 14-year rule of Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and fuelling expectations that the new government might seek closer ties with the EU.
“We are at the very beginning of the new path. But at least it’s a new path. We have no guarantees of anything. There’s just one guarantee that now we have the possibility, we have hope. And this is a huge achievement,” MEP Matjaž Nemec (Slovenia/S&D) told Euronews.
Protest movement
The Student List is the electoral arm of a student-led movement that grew out of a deadly disaster at a recently renovated railway station in November 2024, which raised questions about government accountability and corruption.
After nearly two years, the protests became a nationwide challenge to Serbia’s political establishment, demanding institutional reform and democratic accountability and marking a historic rupture with the SNS’s 14 years in power.
The movement has elected a mix of figures from outside the traditional political class, including students, professors, doctors, artists and businesspeople.
For Brussels, the new political class’s roots in a pro-democratic, anti-corruption movement are an encouraging sign that Belgrade could align with EU values and push through much-needed rule of law reforms.
At the same time, the student movement is also very heterogeneous, at times harbouring opposing views, meaning that, beyond opposing Vučić, it is still unclear exactly what it stands for.
"Ousting Vučić from power was the pre-requisite for Serbia's European future," Jelena Vasiljević, a senior research associate at the University of Belgrade, told Euronews. "Now I hope we will be able to have an open, democratic discussion on the EU accession path."
Democratic change
The movement’s door-to-door campaign centred on corruption and accountability, drawing parallels between Vučić’s defeat and the ousting of Viktor Orbán in Hungary after 16 years. Hungary’s new Prime Minister Péter Magyar ran on a similar platform.
Magyar was the first foreign leader to call the Student List to congratulate it on its result. “I was delighted to hear how much strength our victory in April had given them during this difficult struggle,” he wrote on X.
The fair, competitive vote and the peaceful transfer of power, after Vučić conceded defeat, are seen as proof that Serbia’s democratic process is working.
Still, whether the change of government will translate into a broader realignment with Brussels, and into progress on EU accession, remains to be seen.
“It is not exactly clear what their take on foreign policy is. Many EU countries will be watching very closely,” an EU diplomat told Euronews, pointing to Serbia’s weak alignment with the bloc on foreign policy. “It remains to be seen if that will change.”
EU accession
Senior EU officials have welcomed the result. Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos went as far as saying that “the door to the EU is open, and we are ready to move forward together.”
In July, the European Commission pushed to open Cluster 3 of Serbia’s accession talks, which have been stalled for years, but eight member states blocked the move citing democratic backsliding concerns and lack of alignment on foreign policy.
The programme the Student List published last month, however, focuses solely on domestic governance: public procurement, education, media freedom, judicial independence and health care.
Bojan Vranić, a political science professor at the University of Belgrade, cautioned EU officials against excessive enthusiasm, saying the change of government would hardly lead to a breakthrough in European integration.
“So far, the Student List has been very conservative when it comes to the European Union. They aim to, firstly, improve the system within. And once they, as they said, become a credible partner in a negotiation, then the European Union will be their partner,” Vranić said.
Proceed with caution
Optimism in Brussels is tempered by history. In 2003, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić was murdered by former members of the country’s security apparatus for pursuing a pro-Western agenda of closer ties with Europe, economic reforms and a crackdown on organised crime.
The EU executive is due to publish its enlargement package next week, an annual report on the state of play in candidate countries that will offer a first sign of whether the bloc’s approach to Serbia is shifting, though the new Serbian government is unlikely to be in place before the reporting period ends.
Perhaps more telling will be the conclusions the Council of the European Union adopts on the package, which will show where member states stand and whether they want to encourage Belgrade.
A key test may be how the Student List-led government treats Montenegro, the frontrunner to join the EU. Vučić and the SNS tried to undermine its accession by sowing divisions based on identity politics.
“I firmly believe that a new chapter lies ahead for Montenegro and Serbia, based on respect and open dialogue, without unnecessary escalation of tensions,” Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajić wrote on X.
Foreign policy
Russia sanctions are among the main sticking points between Brussels and Belgrade, which has refused to align with the measures the EU imposed after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“The Republic of Serbia will retain its principled stance on not introducing restrictive measures toward the Russian Federation,” the student movement wrote on X in September, citing Serbia’s historical experience with sanctions.
Beyond its heavy dependence on Russian gas, Belgrade relies on Moscow’s diplomatic backing to prevent international recognition of Kosovo’s independence, which the student movement openly rejected in a memorandum published in May.
The Student List itself is split between staunchly pro-European figures and others who back a traditional Serbian nationalist agenda. Which camp prevails will shape the country’s foreign policy.
“There are strong nationalist voices in Studentska lista who would want to keep Russia onside because of Kosovo. Energy ties will persist as well. China ties might be downgraded a bit, but foreign direct investments and economic links are already there,” said Dimitar Bechev, a senior fellow at the think tank Carnegie Europe.
Vincenzo Genovese contributed to the reporting.