Serbia leader Vucic concedes defeat to student-led movement

Serbia’s long-serving strongman leader, Aleksandar Vucic, conceded defeat on Sunday in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse, student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government.

It was a seismic political shift in the Balkan country where Vucic, who had been endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and who denounced the student movement as a foreign-led attempt to unseat him, led with virtually absolute power for 14 years.

High turnout and rising tensions marked the highly contested parliamentary election, a showdown between Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party and university students who, accusing the government of corruption and dismantling democracy, had built a popular following nationwide.

Serbia’s 6.4 million voters were electing lawmakers to the 250-member Parliament. In conceding the election, Vucic said his party projects that his opponents, the youth-backed Students’ List, will take between 135 and 140 seats while his SNS party will have around 105.

“The Students’ List has won,” Vucic told supporters at his party’s election night event, though he blamed Serbia’s independent media, alleged interference by unnamed European countries, and an “American deep state” for the loss.

Vucic said his SNS party won around 1.7 million votes, compared with the Students’ List, which he said took around 2.2 million.

Supporters of the Students’ List immediately flooded the streets of Belgrade and other cities, honking horns and shouting and chanting, “Aleksandar is gone,” referring to Vucic.

The outcome, which Vucic announced about an hour and a half after polls closed, came after tensions built as voting progressed throughout the day.

Police in anti-riot gear cordoned off an area in central Belgrade around the election commission headquarters. Special police vehicles were seen near a Belgrade park where Vucic’s loyalists have been camping for over a year, and large groups of black-clad men congregated at various points across the city.

Vucic was seeking to become Serbia’s prime minister after serving two near-full terms as president. He resigned the presidency last month to run for prime minister.

Support for the populist had eroded since 16 people were killed in 2024 when a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in Novi Sad. That sparked a wave of youth protests that blamed the collapse on high-level corruption, cronyism, and rampant graft during renovation work at the station.

Despite the protests, Vucic retained considerable support among many of Serbia’s voters. Admirers saw him as a capable leader who could steer the nation through global uncertainties — an image the mainstream media carefully crafted.

While the increasingly authoritarian Vucic has routinely outplayed Serbia’s fractured opposition, the leaderless youth movement proved a tough opponent that rattled his grip on power like no one else in the 14 years since his party took office.

The newly formed Students’ List movement was shaped by university students but none actually appeared on the election list. Instead, its candidates are little-known experts, athletes, farmers and artists.

This approach was meant to counter Vucic’s one-man rule and restore a sense of community and solidarity. During the campaign, the students’ message focused on a non-partisan effort to rebuild Serbia’s economy and restore its democracy.

The students used youthful energy to attract voters disillusioned with local politicians. Vilified by pro-government media, they cycled and walked across the country to reach voters in rural areas — Vucic’s traditional strongholds.

The student victory echoed the recent electoral defeat of a Vucic ally in Hungary, where youth participation helped oust the autocratic Viktor Orbán after 16 years and bring in a new pro-European government. It was likely to resonate beyond Serbia as countries across Europe have faced angry youth and student protests.

Monitors predicted total turnout could reach around 70%, unseen in Serbia since 2000. During the day, long queues formed at polling stations in Serbia and in cities worldwide. Some in the Serbian diaspora were made to vote in the middle of the night after authorities tied voting hours to local Serbian time.

Recent Serbian elections had been marred by irregularities and the EU was closely watching the conduct of Sunday’s vote in a candidate nation for the bloc’s membership.

Independent election monitors reported dozens of cases of irregularities on Sunday, such as photographing of ballots that suggested pressure on voters and attempted vote buying.

Both international and local election monitors had expressed concern about the safety and fairness of an election campaign marked by detentions, near-total government control over the media and reports of surveillance and cyberattacks against activists.

Local elections earlier this year in 10 municipalities in Serbia saw violent attacks on journalists and activists. The 2023 parliamentary vote was followed by opposition protests alleging fraud.