Students’ List wins Serbia election as Vučić concedes and protests become power
Serbia’s opposition now controls institutions once dominated by one ruling party.
Overview
Serbia’s student-backed won a snap election. Early projections gave it 135 to 140 of Parliament’s 250 seats. Aleksandar Vučić’s and allies won about 105. Vučić accepted the loss on October 25, but officials still must check the final count, turnout and complaints about voting.
The result gives protesters a chance to govern after nearly two years of demonstrations. The protests began after a collapsed in Novi Sad in November 2024, killing 16 people. Students demanded documents, prosecutions and accountability. Farmers, actors, judges and others joined them. Prime Minister Miloš Vučević resigned. The new government must unite a loose movement, reopen corruption cases and improve courts, prosecutors, media and elections. Its decisions will also affect , and ties with Russia and China.
Timeline
The student victory and Vučić concession begin Serbia’s test of democratic transfer
The result turns a protest movement born after the into the country’s leading parliamentary force. The next test is whether the Students’ List can preserve unity, complete an , and convert demands for accountability into durable democratic and institutional change.
The election result could reshape Serbia’s foreign-policy direction
A victory and Vučić’s concession would open debate over , , and ties with Russia and China, but the new government’s positions and the pace of any change remain uncertain.
Serbia’s incoming student-backed majority faces pressure for institutional reform
The student-backed majority is expected to face demands concerning , corruption, public media, electoral conditions, and .
The Students’ List wins a parliamentary majority after Vučić concedes
After Vučić conceded defeat, preliminary projections gave the student-backed Students’ List a . The movement must still translate its into a functioning government.
Election monitors report high turnout as officials assess the preliminary count
Preliminary reporting indicated could approach 70%, potentially making it one of Serbia’s highest participation rates in decades. The figures remained projections rather than certified results, and election observers and political actors continued to assess complaints about voting and counting.
Vučić concedes defeat and says the Students’ List has won
Vučić acknowledged that his side had lost before final results were announced, saying, “It is clear that we have lost these elections” and that the Students’ List had won. His marked the political collapse of the ruling party’s long parliamentary dominance.
The Students’ List wins the snap election as Vučić’s bloc suffers a major reversal
Preliminary projections put the Students’ List at about 135 to 140 seats in the , compared with roughly 105 for Vučić’s and its allies. Pollsters’ representative samples projected about 138 seats for the student-backed list and 104 for the SNS, while official results were still pending.
Serbia calls a snap parliamentary election after prolonged student mobilization
The converted a prolonged confrontation between the government and the student movement into a formal national test of support. The vote placed Vučić’s governing bloc against a newly formed, youth-backed .
Student assemblies transform protest demands into an electoral movement
The movement moved from blockades and street protests toward coordinated student assemblies and an . Its emerging platform carried the original demands for accountability, anti-corruption investigations, transparent institutions, and an end to political pressure into electoral politics.
Hundreds of thousands join the student-led Belgrade mobilization
A March 2025 demonstration in Belgrade became one of the largest protests in Serbia’s recent history. Its scale showed that the movement had developed from campus action into a nationwide challenge to President Aleksandar Vučić and the ruling .
Prime Minister Miloš Vučević resigns amid pressure from the protests
Prime Minister resigned as the government faced sustained demonstrations over the station collapse and official accountability. Other officials and governing-party figures issued responses, but the movement said resignation alone did not meet its demands.
Students expand campus blockades into a nationwide protest movement
University students expanded blockades and marches beyond Novi Sad and Belgrade, using assemblies to coordinate action. Farmers, teachers, actors, and other sections of society supported or joined the mobilization.
Students demand accountability and organize campus blockades
Students demanded accountability after the Novi Sad station canopy collapse and organized , calling for institutional responses and justice for those killed.
A railway-station canopy collapse in Novi Sad kills 16 people
A concrete canopy at collapsed, killing 16 people and triggering questions about construction standards, renovation contracts, corruption, and . The disaster became the immediate catalyst for a nationwide anti-government movement.