BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbian leader Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat Sunday in a pivotal parliamentary election, acknowledging that a grassroots student movement had decisively beaten his ruling party to win control of the legislature.
Addressing supporters at the headquarters of his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, in Belgrade, Vučić said preliminary estimates showed his opponents had secured a commanding lead. Vučić projected that the youth-backed Students’ List would claim between 135 and 140 seats in the 250-member parliament, while the SNS would receive roughly 105 seats.
“On the basis of a sample … it is clear that we have lost these elections, the Student List has won,” Vučić said, according to The Guardian. The concession arrived roughly 90 minutes after polls closed.
A Sudden End to Dominant Rule
Vučić said his party gathered approximately 1.7 million votes compared to roughly 2.2 million for the Students’ List, CBS News reported. Despite conceding, Vučić pointed blame at independent media outlets alongside alleged meddling by unnamed European governments and an “American deep state.”
Sample calculations from the polling organizations CeSID and Ipsos indicated that the Students’ List was on track for 138 seats compared to 104 for the SNS, with remaining seats anticipated to go to parties representing national ethnic minorities. The election delivered a seismic shock to Serbia’s political establishment, where Vučić had held sway for more than a decade, CBS News and The Guardian reported. News reports varied slightly on his tenure, with CBS News describing 14 years under his party and The Guardian citing 12 years in power.
Barred by constitutional limits from seeking a third term as president, Vučić stepped down from the presidency last month to spearhead the parliamentary campaign with the goal of returning as prime minister, a post he previously vacated in 2017.
Upon news of the concession, crowds poured into the streets of Belgrade, Novi Sad and other cities. Demonstrators cheered, waved flags, set off fireworks and honked car horns while chanting that the leader had been ousted. In Novi Sad, crowds packed the city center, celebrating what local participants described to BBC News as a historic turning point.
From Tragedy to the Ballot Box
The student movement gained nationwide traction following a disaster in November 2024, when a concrete canopy collapsed at the Novi Sad railway station, killing 16 people. That incident prompted widespread demonstrations accusing the government of pervasive corruption and negligence regarding transit renovations.
Over two years, university organizers channeled public anger into a broad political coalition. Rather than placing students directly on the ballot, the movement recruited little-known community figures to run for the 250 legislative seats, including physicians, athletes, scholars, farmers and cultural figures.
Ilija Srdanović, the lead candidate for the movement, told BBC Serbian that the coalition intended to establish a free state and eliminate what he called tyranny. Radomir Saičić, a Belgrade University professor who spoke at the movement’s headquarters, told supporters that Serbia’s voters had made their voices heard and pledged to begin rebuilding the country.
High Turnout and Lingering Friction
The ballot drew heavy participation, with monitors from CeSID and Ipsos recording turnout of 67.6 percent by 7 p.m. local time, marking the highest rate since the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1992, The Guardian reported. CBS News noted turnout estimates reached around 70 percent, levels unseen since 2000.
The intense vote took place amid severe friction. Anti-riot police surrounded the election commission headquarters in central Belgrade, and armored vehicles deployed near a municipal park where government loyalists had set up camp, CBS News reported. Independent observer groups, including CRTA, warned that the voting process saw numerous irregularities, such as photographed ballots and attempts to purchase votes.
With final official tallies still pending from state election authorities, the Students’ List is expected to begin work on assembling a government and fulfilling pledges to investigate corruption among outgoing officials.
