Serbian student movement claims parliamentary election victory as Vučić concedes

A student-backed political movement in Serbia has claimed victory in the country’s snap parliamentary election after Aleksandar Vučić conceded that his side had lost, while stressing that the position remains based on preliminary results rather than a final certified count.

Vučić, leader of the Serbian Progressive Party, told supporters late on Sunday that the Student List had won the election. He said the student-backed list was projected to take between 135 and 140 seats in Serbia’s 250-seat National Assembly, with his party expected to secure 105. If confirmed through the formal count, that range would give the Student List a clear parliamentary majority and place it in a position to form the next government.

The election was called early after a prolonged period of demonstrations led by students and supported by a wider coalition of citizens. Those protests followed the collapse of a railway-station canopy in Novi Sad in 2024, which killed 16 people. The disaster became a focal point for calls for accountability and helped create a movement that shifted from street action into an electoral campaign.

Sunday’s vote put that movement directly against the Serbian Progressive Party, which has been the dominant force in Serbian politics for more than a decade. The student-backed slate brought together candidates from varied professional backgrounds, including academics, performers, farmers and other public figures. Its campaign presented the vote as an opportunity to change the way the country is governed.

Turnout appeared to be exceptionally high. Preliminary figures during the day pointed to participation close to 70 per cent, a level described as the strongest since the breakup of Yugoslavia. Long queues were reported at polling stations in Belgrade and elsewhere, underlining the scale of public interest in a contest that had been expected to be close.

The result, if confirmed, would mark a major change in Serbia’s political landscape. The Student List would not simply become the largest group in parliament; it would have enough seats to pursue a government without relying on a broad coalition. That prospect gives the movement a far more direct responsibility for setting priorities, choosing ministers and turning campaign demands into workable policy.

Important questions remain unanswered. The election-night estimates are not the same as an official final allocation of seats, and the precise composition of the incoming administration has yet to be settled. It is also unclear who would be nominated for prime minister, how quickly a government could be assembled and how the movement’s broad support base would translate into a shared legislative programme.

Those decisions will matter beyond domestic politics. Serbia has long balanced relationships with the European Union, Russia and China, while its own path towards deeper European integration has remained politically significant. A new parliamentary majority would be judged not only on the demands that brought its supporters together, but also on how it handles the country’s economic choices, institutions and international relationships.

For now, the decisive development is Vučić’s public concession on the basis of preliminary figures. The formal count will determine the final distribution of seats, but the concession has given the student movement a powerful claim to have transformed two years of protest into a parliamentary breakthrough.