Serbia’s long-serving leader Aleksandar Vucic acknowledged an election loss on Sunday to a student-led movement that won a projected majority in parliament.
Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s long-serving leader, conceded defeat on Sunday after a youth-backed opposition movement captured a projected majority in the country’s parliamentary election.
Speaking to supporters at his party’s headquarters only 90 minutes after polls closed, Vucic announced that his opponents had prevailed. According to projections cited by Vucic and reported by PBS NewsHour, the opposition Students’ List will secure between 135 and 140 seats in the 250-member legislature, while his Serbian Progressive Party will hold around 105.
Vucic stated that his party received about 1.7 million votes compared to roughly 2.2 million for the Students’ List. When addressing the crowd, he acknowledged the outcome plainly, saying, “The Students’ List has won.”
Despite conceding the vote, Vucic accused Serbia’s independent media, unnamed European nations and an “American deep state” of interfering in the race to defeat his party. Following his concession, crowds filled the streets of Belgrade and other cities across Serbia, blowing car horns and shouting that Vucic was finally gone.
Why the election matters
The vote marks a dramatic political turnaround in the Balkan country, where Vucic had governed with near-total authority for 14 years. Vucic, who had received an endorsement from Russian President Vladimir Putin, had repeatedly characterized the student movement as an outside conspiracy designed to force him from office.
The defeat ends a period where Vucic consistently outmaneuvered a divided political opposition. It also mirrors recent regional shifts, including the defeat of Hungarian leader Viktor Orban after 16 years in power, where youth turnout also helped install a pro-European government. Observers watched the Serbian contest closely because the nation is an official candidate for European Union membership.
Tensions had built throughout Belgrade on election day. Police in anti-riot gear blocked streets around the election commission headquarters in the center of the capital. Special police vehicles were stationed near a city park where Vucic supporters had camped for over a year, and groups of men dressed in black gathered at several spots across the city.
How a station collapse sparked a movement
Public frustration with Vucic accelerated sharply after an infrastructure disaster in 2024, when a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station in Novi Sad, killing 16 people. As CBS News noted, that fatal accident prompted two years of youth-led demonstrations that accused government officials of widespread graft, cronyism and corruption during station renovation work.
Vucic stepped down from the presidency last month to run for prime minister after completing nearly two full terms as president. Even as demonstrations continued, he retained strong backing among voters who credited him with steering the country through international instability, an image reinforced by state-aligned media outlets.
The Students’ List countered that machine by building a broad grassroots campaign. Although university students conceived and organized the movement, no students ran on the ballot. The coalition instead recruited little-known specialists, farmers, athletes and artists to fill its candidate roster, seeking to present an alternative to one-man governance.
Activists bypassed hostile coverage in pro-government media by traveling on foot and by bicycle into rural towns and villages that had long formed the core of Vucic’s electoral base. Their platform centered on fighting official corruption, rebuilding the domestic economy and restoring democratic norms.
Monitors flag irregularities during high turnout
Serbia has 6.4 million eligible voters, and election monitors estimated overall participation could reach about 70 percent, a level not seen in the country since 2000. Voters formed long queues at polling places across Serbia and at voting stations abroad. Because election authorities kept polling hours synchronized to local Serbian time, some diaspora voters had to cast their ballots overnight.
Independent election observers documented dozens of irregularities throughout the day, including attempted vote buying and voters taking photos of completed ballots, which monitors said pointed to coercion.
International and domestic observer groups had already warned about unfair campaign conditions before Sunday. Their reports cited the detention of activists, state surveillance, cyberattacks against campaign groups and heavy government control over traditional media. Local elections earlier this year in 10 Serbian municipalities brought violent attacks on reporters and civic organizers, and the previous parliamentary election in 2023 ended with street demonstrations over allegations of electoral fraud.
