Serbia's Vucic concedes defeat to the student movement, ending 14 years in power

Aleksandar Vucic stood before his supporters in Belgrade on Sunday night and said the words he had avoided for 14 years. "The Students' List has won," he said. His Serbian Progressive Party, the SNS, projects that the students will take between 135 and 140 seats in the 250 seat National Assembly, while his own list will hold about 105. A majority takes 126.

The concession came about an hour and a half after the polls closed. An Ipsos and CeSID projection put the Students' List at 52.0 percent of the vote and 138 seats, with Vucic's United Serbia list at 39.3 percent and 104 seats, as of October 25. The election monitor CRTA put the students at 51.47 percent against 40.42 percent for Vucic's list. Vucic said his party had taken about 1.7 million votes against about 2.2 million for the students. The Republic Electoral Commission count was still running on Sunday night, and the seat figures are projections, not a certified result.

Turnout drove the result. Pollsters CeSID and Ipsos put turnout at 67.6 percent by 7 p.m. local time, the highest Serbia has recorded since 1992. Long lines formed at polling stations in Belgrade and in Serbian diaspora cities abroad. When Vucic finished speaking, supporters of the students poured into the streets of the capital, honking horns and chanting that Aleksandar was gone. Radomir Sajcic, a Belgrade University professor who speaks for the movement, told reporters, "Tonight we celebrate victory, tomorrow we build the future." Ilija Srdanovic, the cardiologist who leads the student slate, said the country had turned its back on a tyrant and was moving toward a better Serbia.

Vucic did not leave quietly. He blamed Serbia's independent media for the loss, and he blamed alleged interference by unnamed European countries and an "American deep state." He called the student campaign unfair and deceitful and said he would make no concessions to the opposition, while he accepted that the students had won.

Europe's leaders answered within hours. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X, "Today, the people of Serbia turned out in record numbers to shape their country's future. Congratulations to the Student List on its victory in the parliamentary elections." She said the European Union stands ready to support reforms on the rule of law, media freedom and the fight against corruption, and to work with Belgrade on Serbia's future in the Union. Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said Serbia had raised its voice after nearly two years of protests for democracy, the rule of law and the fight against corruption. Alain Berset, secretary general of the Council of Europe, welcomed Vucic's acceptance of the result and his commitment to a peaceful democratic transition.

The movement that beat him began with a disaster. In November 2024 a concrete canopy collapsed at the train station in Novi Sad and killed 16 people. Students blamed the collapse on corruption and shoddy renovation work, and their protests grew for almost two years into a national movement against graft and against one man rule. The students shaped the campaign in their own image. None of them appeared on the election list. Their candidates are little known experts, athletes, farmers and artists, and their programme promised to rebuild the economy, restore democracy and root out corruption. They cycled and walked through rural districts that had been Vucic strongholds, in a country where pro government media vilified them for months.

Vucic resigned the presidency last month to lead his party's list and run for prime minister again. He had held power since 2012, first as prime minister and then through two terms as president, and he had beaten every conventional opposition Serbia put against him. Russian President Vladimir Putin had endorsed him in this campaign. Independent monitors reported dozens of irregularities during the day on Sunday, among them voters photographing ballots, which suggests pressure on voters, and attempted vote buying. What happens next turns on the official count and on whether the transfer of power runs as peacefully as Sunday night's concession promised.