Serbia election: Vucic concedes to Student List after two-year protest movement

Aleksandar Vucic, who has dominated Serbian politics for more than a decade, conceded defeat in snap parliamentary elections held Sunday after a student-led movement that organized protests against him for nearly two years won enough projected seats to deny his party a majority. The Student List emerged from demonstrations that began after a train station canopy collapse in Novi Sad killed 16 people on November 1, 2024.

Vucic addressed supporters after a vote sample projected his Serbian Progressive Party would take 105 seats in the 250-member parliament, against 135 to 140 for the Student List. "It is clear that we have lost these elections," he said. Turnout reached its highest level in more than 30 years. The movement campaigned on promises to address corruption, depoliticise public institutions, and restore citizens' rights. Ilija Srdanovic, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad, led the campaign.

Vucic, born in Belgrade in 1970, graduated from the University of Belgrade's faculty of law and entered politics in 1993 with the Serbian Radical Party under Vojislav Seselj. In a July 1995 parliamentary debate about possible NATO strikes, nine days after the Srebrenica genocide, he said: "Kill one Serb, and we will kill 100 Muslims." Vucic and Tomislav Nikolic founded the Serbian Progressive Party in 2008 after a split in the Radical Party, and the new party sought closer ties to mainstream European politics. Aleksandar Seselj, the son of Vojislav Seselj, appeared on Vucic's electoral list in Sunday's contest.

Vucic served as first deputy prime minister from 2012 to 2014, became prime minister in 2014, and won the presidency in 2017 with re-election in 2022. His term was scheduled to run to 2027. Under pressure from the student-led protests, he resigned in September and called early elections. Throughout, he retained influence over his party and state policy. He called demonstrators "blockaders" and accused them of trying to destabilise Serbia.

The protests drew university professors, doctors, and workers. Serbian journalist Safeta Bisevac, who has followed Vucic's career, said the party's 2012 anti-corruption campaign produced limited results while authorities expanded control over institutions, media, and political life. "He made many promises and fulfilled few of them, but in the meantime, he established almost complete control over the state apparatus," Bisevac said. The December 2012 arrest of businessman Miroslav Miskovic and his son Marko on suspicion of financial irregularities and tax evasion was among the prominent cases; both were acquitted after years of proceedings, and the state paid them compensation.

Official data cited by Reuters shows unemployment fell from 26 percent to 8 to 9 percent since 2012, while nominal gross domestic product nearly tripled to about 90 billion euros ($101bn). Annual foreign direct investment rose from about 800 million euros ($896m) in 2012 to a record 5.2 billion euros ($5.8bn) in 2024, and a network of motorways was built. Rising costs of living and public debt remain part of the debate over the government's economic record.

Political scientist Dusko Radosavljevic said the past decade was marked by "systematic pressure and the destruction of social institutions." He said state intelligence services spent more time monitoring political opponents than performing their actual duties, and that critical thinking was pushed out of public media. "The students simply gave a voice to the justified anger of citizens," Radosavljevic said.