Serbia's Student-Led Opposition Wins Parliamentary Majority as Vučić Concedes

In Serbia's snap parliamentary election, the student-led Student List movement dealt a decisive blow to Aleksandar Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has governed the country since 2012. Based on a sample of votes, Vučić projected the Student List would secure between 135 and 140 seats in the 250-member parliament, compared with 105 for his own electoral list. Vučić, who had resigned as president in September to run for prime minister, publicly conceded, saying, "It is clear that we have lost these elections." Voter turnout stood at 64.9 percent by 6 pm local time — the highest since the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992. The Student List emerged from nearly two years of protests sparked by the November 2024 collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad that killed 16 people; demands for accountability over that disaster broadened into a wider anti-corruption and pro-democracy movement. Tens of thousands of supporters flooded Belgrade's streets in celebration following Vučić's announcement, with fireworks and car horns filling the night. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated the Student List and pledged EU support for democratic reforms, media freedom and the rule of law. Independent election monitors from the CRTA recorded pressure on voters or election workers at nearly a third of the roughly 500 polling stations they observed, and also reported failures to protect ballot secrecy.