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Serbia’s Snap Election Tests Aleksandar Vucic’s SNS Against Student-Led Movement
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Serbia hosts a snap parliamentary election on October 25, testing Vučić’s 14-year rule. Student-led movement mobilized widespread protests aiming to unseat Vučić's SNS.
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DW“could sideline other parties in the 250-member parliament.”
“It is campaigning on restoring the rule of law, ending corruption and rebuilding institutions”
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Snap vote and student push
Serbia is set to hold a snap parliamentary election on October 25, with the vote framed as a test of whether President Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) can extend its 14-year grip on power against a student-led movement. Final campaign rallies took place across Serbia ahead of the snap election billed as a referendum on the country’s future, and lead candidate Ilija Srdanović told students marching towards Belgrade, "The energy is unstoppable."
The BBC traced the movement’s start to 1 November 2024, when the concrete canopy collapsed outside Novi Sad train station, killing 16 people, and it said the tragedy was seen as emblematic of corruption and negligence. Al Jazeera said the student campaign has channelled frustration with the SNS, which has governed since 2012, and it quoted Jelena Vasiljevic saying, "The political dynamic has changed from the ground up."
Rallies, slogans, and claims
Tens of thousands of supporters filled Belgrade’s central square for a final campaign rally ahead of Sunday’s vote, and Archive of Public Gatherings estimated about 150,000 people were at the rally.
Marija Nedeljkovic Radic, 47, said, "I came to support the Student List because young people finally gave me hope that it is possible to live in a normal country," as she arrived for the students’ rally.
Jugoslav Gasic told the crowd, "We are putting an end to 14 years of humiliation, chaos and betrayal," and the rally chanted "Victory, victory!" as the Student List sought to end more than 14 years of rule by Vucic’s SNS.
Vucic told supporters at a sports hall in the capital, "Let us never forget how they tried to bring down our state," and he added, "Let us go out and defeat them! Defeat them decisively!"
What is at stake
The outcome will shape whether Serbia attempts to reset institutions critics say have been hollowed out by years of party control, while the SNS rejects allegations of abuse and corruption. Srdan Majstorovic, chair of the governing board of the European Policy Centre, said a new government would face the far harder task of rebuilding a democratic system after what he described as 14 years of systematic damage to institutions, the rule of law and public trust.
The election threatens populist leader Aleksandar Vučić’s 12 years in power, and it described concerns about the fairness of the vote as European observers monitor Sunday’s ballot. The student movement was seeking to make its presence felt in the final days before voters head to the polls, and it described marchers carrying Serbian flags and burning torches as the procession moved into the city.