Serbia’s strongman leader Vucic concedes defeat to student-led movement in seismic political shift

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The long-serving strongman leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, conceded defeat on Sunday in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government.

It was a seismic political shift in the Balkan country where Vucic, who had been endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and who denounced the student movement as a foreign-led attempt to unseat him, led for 14 years.

High turnout and gathering tensions marked the highly contested parliamentary election that was a showdown between Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party and university students who, accusing the government of corruption and dismantling democracy, had built a popular following across the country.

Serbia’s 6.4 million voters were electing lawmakers to the 250-member Parliament. In conceding the election, Vucic said his party projects that his opponents, the youth-backed Students’ List , will take between 135 and 140 seats while his SNS party will have around 105.

“The Students’ List has won,” Vucic told supporters at his party’s election-night event, though he blamed Serbia’s independent media as well as alleged interference by unnamed European countries and an “American deep state” for the loss.

Vucic said that his SNS party won around 1.7 million votes compared to the Students’ List, which he said took around 2.2 million.

Supporters of the Students’ List immediately flooded onto the streets of Belgrade and other cities, honking horns, shouting and chanting: “Aleksandar is gone,” referring to Vucic.

The outcome, which Vucic announced only around an hour and a half after polls closed, came after tensions had built as voting progressed during the day.

Police in anti-riot gear cordoned off an area in central Belgrade around the election commission headquarters. Special police vehicles could be seen near a Belgrade park where Vucic’s loyalists have been camping for over a year, and large groups of black-clad men had congregated at various points throughout the city.

Vucic was seeking to become Serbia’s prime minister after serving two near-full terms as president. He resigned the presidency last month to lead the campaign.

Support for the populist had eroded since 16 people were killed in 2024 when a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in Novi Sad . That set off a wave of youth protests that blamed the collapse on high-level corruption, cronyism and rampant graft during renovation work at the station.

Despite the protests, Vucic retained considerable support among many of Serbia’s voters. Admirers viewed him as a capable leader who can steer the nation through global uncertainties — the image that was carefully crafted by the mainstream media.

While the increasingly authoritarian Vucic has routinely outplayed Serbia’s fractured opposition in the past, the leaderless youth movement proved to be a tough opponent that rattled his firm grip on power in Serbia like no one else in the 14 years since his party took office.

The newly formed Students’ List movement was shaped by university students but none actually appeared on the election list. Instead, its candidates are little-known experts, athletes, farmers and artists.

This approach was meant to counter Vucic’s one-man rule and restore a sense of community and solidarity. The students’ message during the campaign focused on a non-partisan effort to rebuild Serbia’s economy and restore its democracy.

Andrej Isakovic/AFP/Getty Images

The students have used youthful energy to attract voters who are disillusioned with local politicians. Vilified by pro-government media, they cycled and walked through the country to reach voters in rural areas — Vucic’s traditional strongholds.

The student victory echoed the recent electoral defeat of a Vucic ally in Hungary, where youth participation helped oust the autocratic Viktor Orbán after 16 years and bring in a new pro-European government . It was likely to resonate beyond Serbia as countries across Europe have faced angry youth and student protests .

Monitors predicted that total turnout in the election could reach around 70%, unseen in Serbia since 2000. During the day, long queues formed at polling stations in Serbia and in cities around the world. Some in the Serbian diaspora were made to vote in the middle of the night after authorities tied voting hours to local Serbian time.

Recent Serbian elections had been marred by irregularities and the EU was closely watching the conduct of Sunday’s vote in a candidate nation for the bloc’s membership.

Independent election monitors reported dozens of cases of irregularities on Sunday such as photographing of ballots that suggested pressure on voters and attempted vote buying.

Both international and local election monitors had expressed concern about the safety and fairness of an election campaign marked by detentions, near-total government control over the media and reports of surveillance and cyberattacks against activists.

Local elections earlier this year in 10 municipalities in Serbia saw violent attacks on journalists and activists. The previous parliamentary vote in 2023 was followed by opposition protests alleging fraud.

佩贾·米洛萨夫列维奇/法新社/盖蒂图片社

塞尔维亚长期执政的强人领导人亚历山大·武契奇周日承认在选举中败北。此次选举中，他和他的右翼政党与由学生领导的多元化反对派运动展开角逐，该运动曾持续两年抗议他的政府。

对于这个巴尔干国家来说，这是一次巨大的政治变革。武契奇曾得到俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京的支持，并谴责学生运动是外国势力企图推翻他的阴谋，他领导该国长达 14 年。

高投票率和日益紧张的局势标志着竞争激烈的议会选举的开始。这场选举是武契奇及其右翼塞尔维亚进步党与大学生之间的对决，大学生指责政府腐败和破坏民主，并在全国范围内建立了广泛的支持基础。

塞尔维亚640万选民正在选举250名议员组成议会。武契奇在承认败选时表示，他的政党预计其对手——由年轻人支持的“学生名单”党——将获得135至140个席位，而他的塞尔维亚进步党（SNS）将获得约105个席位。

“学生名单党赢了，”武契奇在党的选举之夜活动上告诉支持者，但他将败选归咎于塞尔维亚的独立媒体，以及未具名的欧洲国家和“美国深层政府”的所谓干预。

武契奇表示，他的SNS党赢得了约170万张选票，而学生名单党赢得了约220万张选票。

学生名单的支持者立即涌上贝尔格莱德和其他城市的街道，鸣笛、高喊：“亚历山大下台了”，指的是武契奇。

投票结束后仅一个半小时左右，武契奇就宣布了选举结果。此前，随着投票的进行，紧张局势在当天不断升级。

防暴警察封锁了贝尔格莱德市中心选举委员会总部周围的区域。在贝尔格莱德的一个公园附近可以看到特警车辆，武契奇的支持者已在那里驻扎了一年多。此外，大批身穿黑衣的男子聚集在贝尔格莱德市内各处。

武契奇在担任两届接近完整的总统任期后，寻求成为塞尔维亚总理。他上个月辞去总统职务，领导竞选活动。

自2024年诺维萨德火车站混凝土顶棚坍塌造成16人死亡以来，民众对这位民粹主义者的支持率有所下降。此次事故引发了一系列青年抗议活动，他们将坍塌归咎于车站翻修工程期间的高层腐败、裙带关系和猖獗的贪污行为。

尽管抗议不断，武契奇在塞尔维亚许多选民中仍然保持着相当高的支持率。支持者认为他是一位能干的领导人，能够带领国家渡过全球动荡的难关——这正是主流媒体精心塑造的形象。

尽管日益专制的武契奇过去经常在与塞尔维亚四分五裂的反对派的较量中占上风，但这个群龙无首的青年运动却是一个难缠的对手，在他所在的政党执政的 14 年间，没有任何其他势力能够撼动他对塞尔维亚的牢固统治。

新成立的学生名单运动由大学生发起，但实际上没有大学生出现在选举名单上。相反，其候选人都是一些鲜为人知的专家、运动员、农民和艺术家。

这种做法旨在对抗武契奇的一人统治，重建社会凝聚力和团结精神。学生们在竞选期间传递的信息侧重于以非党派立场重建塞尔维亚经济和恢复其民主。

安德烈·伊萨科维奇/法新社/盖蒂图片社

这些学生利用青春活力吸引那些对地方政客感到失望的选民。他们遭到亲政府媒体的诋毁，于是骑自行车、步行走遍全国各地，接触农村地区的选民——这些地区正是武契奇的传统票仓。

塞尔维亚学生的胜利与武契奇盟友在匈牙利近期选举中的失败遥相呼应。在匈牙利，青年人的参与帮助推翻了执政16年的独裁者维克托·欧尔班，并扶植了一个亲欧的新政府。鉴于欧洲各国都面临着愤怒的青年和学生抗议，塞尔维亚学生的胜利很可能在塞尔维亚以外产生影响。

监测人员预测，此次选举的总投票率可能达到70%左右，这将是塞尔维亚自2000年以来从未出现过的投票率。当天，塞尔维亚境内外的投票站都排起了长队。由于当局将投票时间与塞尔维亚当地时间挂钩，一些塞尔维亚侨民不得不在半夜投票。

塞尔维亚最近的选举因违规行为而蒙上阴影，欧盟正密切关注这个欧盟候选国周日举行的投票情况。

独立选举观察员周日报告了数十起违规事件，例如拍摄选票照片，这表明选民受到压力，并试图买票。

国际和地方选举观察员都对此次选举活动的安全性和公正性表示担忧，此次选举活动的特点是拘留、政府对媒体的近乎完全控制，以及有报道称活动人士遭到监视和网络攻击。

今年早些时候，塞尔维亚10个市镇举行的地方选举中，记者和活动人士遭到暴力袭击。此前在2023年举行的议会选举之后，反对派举行抗议活动，指控选举存在舞弊。