Serbia Votes as Vucic Faces Student Movement in a Tight Parliamentary Race

Serbians are voting today in parliamentary elections that pit longtime populist leader Aleksandar Vucic against a student-led movement against corruption and creeping authoritarianism. Polls point to a tight race, and the vote is being seen as a potential turning point for the Balkan country.

Vucic called the snap elections in September. Having held power for more than a decade, first as prime minister and then as president, he resigned as president in September to run again for prime minister. Even so, he remains a strong incumbent.

Behind the election lies almost two years of student-led protest. The demonstrations began after a train station canopy collapsed in the city of Novi Sad in 2024, killing 16 people. The collapse was widely blamed on government corruption, and public anger gradually grew into a nationwide movement against perceived corruption and authoritarianism.

The students have since gained widespread support. On Thursday, about 150,000 supporters of the student movement rallied in central Belgrade, a major show of strength ahead of the vote.

The movement's Student List fields a roster of 250 largely unfamiliar candidates, including university professors, actors and farmers, led by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic. Their agenda focuses on rooting out corruption and improving schooling, while saying little about their international ambitions.

During the campaign, Vucic promised higher pensions and public sector salaries, investment in state healthcare, and subsidies for young couples. In foreign policy he has balanced closer ties with China, a major investor, and Russia, Serbia's traditional ally and principal supplier of natural gas, while leaving the door open to joining the European Union.

Relations with the EU have nevertheless frayed under his leadership, with the bloc growing increasingly frustrated over a lack of reforms addressing the judiciary, the rule of law and corruption.

The polls suggest a very close contest. An Ipsos poll published on Thursday gives Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party 47 percent of the vote to the students' 40 percent, though other polls have put the students ahead.

Mario Bikarski, senior Europe analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, told the Reuters news agency: 'The Serbian election is shaping up to be a watershed moment for the country as the Student List mounts the biggest challenge against Vucic yet.'

Rights groups and activists say repression has worsened since the deadly canopy collapse. Vucic and his party have repeatedly denied accusations of repression, corruption and spying on their opponents. The former president claims the students are funded by foreign agents in Croatia and Montenegro, a charge the students deny.

Many voters, however, thank Vucic for pulling Serbia out of economic obscurity and orchestrating a period of sustained modernisation. A loss for him in this country of some 6 million people would mark a profound political shift, reminiscent, analysts say, of the defeat of Hungary's Viktor Orban in April.

Once voting ends and results begin to come in, it will become clear whether the Vucic era, now more than a decade old, continues — or whether the student movement opens a new chapter in Serbian politics.