For almost two years, Serbia’s students marched, blocked roads and occupied lecture halls. On Sunday, they went one step further and won an election. In a snap parliamentary vote held on October 25, the Student List, running under the slogan “Students Are Winning”, took a clear majority, and Aleksandar Vučić, the man who has dominated Serbian politics for more than a decade, admitted defeat within hours of the polls closing.
According to the projection of the Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) and Ipsos, based on a 96 percent sample without the diaspora vote, the Student List won about 52.9 percent of the vote. That translates into roughly 140 of the 250 seats in the National Assembly, comfortably above the 126 needed for a majority. The list “Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia” came in at about 38.8 percent and around 103 seats. A separate count by the monitoring group Crta put the figures at 51.47 percent for the students and 40.42 percent for Vučić’s list. The official results from the Republic Electoral Commission were still being processed overnight, but neither side disputed the overall picture.
Apart from these two blocs, only parties of national minorities appear to have made it into parliament, among them the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians and an Albanian coalition. Ivica Dačić’s list, long a junior partner of the ruling camp, stayed at around 2.2 percent and below the threshold. Several smaller parties ended the night with close to zero.
Vučić did not wait for the final count. Speaking at his campaign headquarters in Belgrade, he said it was already clear from the sample that his camp had lost. He estimated that the Student List would end up with between 135 and 140 seats and his own list with around 105, and that the students had received about 2.2 million votes compared with roughly 1.72 million for his side. “Many will be surprised,” he told supporters, before conceding the result.
On the other side of the city, the mood could hardly have been more different. Radomir Saičić, one of the Student List’s candidates, addressed the crowd from the movement’s election headquarters: “Tonight the voice of the people is heard, tonight the voice of freedom is heard,” he said, adding that no obstacle had proven greater than the will of the citizens. Soon afterwards, crowds filled the streets of Belgrade and other cities, waving flags, honking car horns and singing late into the night.
Turnout was one of the stories of the day. By 8 p.m., CeSID estimated participation at around 69 percent, a remarkably high figure for Serbia. Some 6.45 million citizens were eligible to vote at 8,392 polling stations, including 93 abroad in 37 countries. Ballots were printed in 29 language versions, reflecting the country’s many minorities.
From protest movement to governing majority
The road to Sunday’s result began with anger, not with a party program. The student protests started in late 2024 and grew into the largest civic movement Serbia has seen in a generation. What began as a demand for accountability turned into a broader campaign against corruption, captured institutions and pressure on the media. Universities went on strike, farmers drove their tractors into the cities to support the students, and on some weekends hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Belgrade.
For a long time, the students insisted that they did not want to become politicians. Their main demand was that institutions should simply do their job. But as the confrontation with the government dragged on, the call for new elections became central, and the movement eventually put forward its own list instead of backing the traditional opposition parties. That decision was controversial even among supporters, but it seems to have paid off: many voters who had given up on the established opposition were willing to back a fresh, non-party list. Notably, the old opposition list “European Serbia” received only a fraction of one percent.
The result changes Serbian politics overnight. Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party have shaped the country since 2012, first in government and later from the presidency. Supporters credit them with stability, foreign investment and large infrastructure projects. Critics accuse them of building a system in which the state, the ruling party and friendly media merge into one. The election was widely seen as a referendum on exactly that system, and voters have now given a clear answer.
The reaction from Brussels was swift and warm. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated the Student List and said the Commission was ready to support reforms on the rule of law, media freedom, the fight against corruption and the strengthening of democratic institutions. Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos went further: “Serbia has spoken,” she wrote, recalling the nearly two years of protests. “A new chapter can begin for Serbia. The doors of the European Union are open.” European Council President António Costa and the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Picula, sent similar messages, with Picula adding that the assessment of the vote should be left to election observers, but that the will of voters deserves full respect.
The hard part starts now. A movement that grew out of street protests has to turn into a government that can run ministries, pass budgets and negotiate with Brussels, Moscow and Beijing at the same time. Serbia’s economy depends heavily on foreign investment, its energy sector is tied to Russian gas, and the question of Kosovo remains as sensitive as ever. The new majority will also inherit institutions that its own supporters describe as deeply politicized. Cleaning them up without looking vengeful will require patience and a great deal of political skill.
There are practical questions too. The Student List has never governed, its candidates are largely unknown outside activist circles, and its loose, consensus-based structure was designed for protest, not for coalition talks or daily administration. Observers will watch closely who becomes prime minister, how quickly a cabinet can be formed and whether the students can keep their broad and diverse coalition of voters together once concrete decisions have to be made.
Vučić, for his part, still commands a large and disciplined parliamentary group of more than 100 seats. How he behaves in opposition, and whether his camp accepts the result in practice as well as in words, will shape the tone of the coming months. His quick concession on Sunday evening was an important signal and was noted with relief by many observers.
For now, though, the dominant image is that of young people dancing in the streets of Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš. Two years ago, many of them were first-year students carrying handmade signs. On Monday morning, they wake up as members of a governing majority. Whether that energy can be turned into lasting reforms will decide not only Serbia’s future, but also whether its long road toward the European Union finally speeds up.
