Snap polls victory: Serbian student movement gets ready to govern

Serbia’s student-led movement is preparing to govern, ending 14 years of right-wing populist rule.

The victory in Sunday’s parliamentary vote came after nearly two years of anti-government protests sparked by the 2024 collapse of a canopy at Novi Sad railway station that killed 16 people.

The disaster has been widely blamed on corruption and triggered some of Serbia’s largest protests since the fall of strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

The result will be closely watched across Europe as the continent faces a wave of youth-led demonstrations. But political analyst Dusan Vucicevic said that the movement was distinct from other protests.

“This experiment in grassroots democracy ultimately succeeded in securing more than 50 percent of the vote, although it remains unclear whether a similar model could work in other countries,” Vucicevic told AFP.

According to independent electoral watchdog CeSID, the Students’ List secured 53 percent of the vote while Vucic’s populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) garnered almost 39 percent based on 96 percent of the count.

The result would give them 140 MPs in the 250-seat assembly, with 103 for the SNS. So far no other party has passed the required threshold to enter parliament.

“Students won and with them also a hope that Serbia can be a country of justice, freedom and dignity,” Radomir Saicic, a candidate for the List, told supporters in a speech at the movement’s election headquarters late Sunday.

Near-record turnout of almost 70 percent, the Balkan nation’s highest at a parliamentary election in more than three decades, likely drove the political upset. The figure surpassed the 1993 parliamentary election, when just over 61 percent voted.

Shocking many observers, Vucic, who has grown increasingly authoritarian in recent years, conceded defeat less than two hours after polls closed.

It triggered raucous scenes as supporters of the movement celebrated the defeat of a government they blamed for deep-rooted corruption.

Thousands poured into the streets of Belgrade and other cities to celebrate, with cars honking, crowds chanting, and fireworks lighting up the skyline.

Addressing supporters late Sunday, Vucic, who has maintained close ties with Russia throughout his tenure, blamed foreign powers for the result.

“I want people to know, this was the validation of a revolution carried out with the direct support of various European countries and the US deep state, the one that is also against President Trump,” he said.

For nearly two years, students have staged rallies and marched across the Balkan nation to reach voters directly and counter the media machine of Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party.

Their protests have drawn huge crowds. A final pre-election rally in Belgrade on Thursday attracted around 150,000 people, according to an independent protest monitor.