Serbians began voting on Sunday in a high-stakes parliamentary election pitting longtime leader Aleksandar Vucic against a mass student-led protest movement. The snap election follows nearly two years of demonstrations sparked by a fatal railway station canopy collapse in Novi Sad, testing the incumbent’s 14-year hold on power.
The Student List and the Battle Against Government Graft
A sense of anticipation swept through Belgrade as thousands gathered for the final rally of the Student List, an opposition group put forward by the student movement that has been protesting against the government for almost exactly two years. The movement emerged spontaneously in November 2024 after a concrete canopy over the main rail station in Novi Sad collapsed, killing 16 people. Protesters asserted that rampant graft led to negligence during renovation work at the station by a Chinese consortium.
Rather than fading, the demonstrations grew throughout 2025 and 2026. Their campaign centered on ending graft, restoring the rule of law, and rebuilding public institutions under the straightforward slogan Serbia or the mafia
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During the campaign, the student movement generated significant public hope and substantial support. Opinion polls suggested that the anti-corruption and anti-repression group could secure more than 40 percent of the vote in the parliamentary contest. Thousands gathered for a rally in central Belgrade, as a student movement that has been protesting against the government for almost two years formed the core of a significant social mobilization.
Rather than focusing on contentious foreign policy debates or the status of Kosovo, the student coalition kept its program centered on domestic accountability and institutional reform. Senior research associates noted that the political dynamic shifted from the ground up, turning into a referendum-style showdown between the youth-backed movement and the ruling party. As the campaign concluded, activists ended their final gathering by performing a traditional Serbian circle dance known as a kolo.
People, it smells like freedom.
Aleksandar Cupic, professor of transport and traffic engineering and a candidate on the Student List, via Dw
Aleksandar Vucic and the Incumbent Push for Power
Political scientist Dusan Spasojevic told DW that these are the first elections since Vucic came to power in 2012 that are competitive and whose outcome remains uncertain.
Vucic found himself on the back foot for the first time since assuming power. To counter the challenge from the Student List, he cranked up nationalist rhetoric to mobilize the far right. He and his party repeatedly denied accusations of corruption, repression, and spying, while alleging that the student movement was financed by foreign agents operating in Montenegro and Croatia.
The incumbent also maintained balancing acts between major global powers, using ties with China as a major investor and Russia as a primary supplier of natural gas, while keeping the door open to potential European Union membership. However, relations with Brussels have frayed over the years amid concerns regarding democratic backsliding, unresolved issues with Kosovo, and Belgrade’s refusal to impose sanctions on Moscow.
Voter Turnout and Allegations of Electoral Irregularities
The run-up to the vote faced severe criticism regarding election fairness. Civil society organizations and international observers raised concerns about a hostile environment, highlighting issues from previous cycles such as vote-buying and ballot-box stuffing. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Balkan Service also uncovered some 500,000 people registered to vote without a full address, raising widespread concerns about electoral fraud. Meanwhile, voter registrations abroad nearly tripled among young emigrants, though authorities closed a number of polling stations outside the country while opening new ones in neighboring regions.