Serbia: Student List celebrates victory as the world reacts to Vučić's defeat

Belgrade — A day after Serbian leader Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat in Sunday's snap parliamentary elections, international reactions began to arrive and the student movement that beat him celebrated a historic political shift in the Balkan country.

Vučić conceded on Sunday night that the Student List had won, estimating it would take between 135 and 140 of the 250 seats in Parliament, against about 105 for his list, according to his own sample-based projections. The Ipsos and CeSID projection put the Student List at 52.1% of the vote and 138 seats, against 39.3% and 104 for Vučić's list, above the 126 needed to govern alone.

Turnout was close to 70%, the highest since the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992, according to pollsters and the electoral commission. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Belgrade to celebrate once Vučić's concession became known; he had dominated Serbian politics as prime minister or president since 2014.

On Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated the Student List and offered to work together to advance Serbia's European future, with reforms on the rule of law, press freedom and the fight against corruption. The Kremlin also reacted on Monday: spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow wants to keep developing ties with Serbia, but that “it takes two to tango” and that it hopes the new rulers understand that cooperating with Moscow is in Serbia's interest.

The movement was born after the collapse of the Novi Sad railway station canopy in November 2024, which killed 16 people, and grew over almost two years of protests against corruption. Its list of 250 candidates, none of them current students and headed by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic, must now decide who will be prime minister. For now, the results are preliminary: the electoral commission is still processing polling-station records and the official seat allocation has not yet been certified.

Photo: Emilija Knezevic / Wikimedia Commons (archive)

Source: AnewZ