Serbia's Student List Takes Its Protest Movement to the Ballot
Serbia's Student List, a movement that has held about two years of near-constant protests, is fielding its own candidates in the parliamentary election scheduled for Sunday, 25 October. The Guardian reports that the list has 250 candidates, among them Milica Jovanović, an assistant professor at the University of Belgrade. The vote pits the movement against the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), led by Aleksandar Vučić.
The movement grew out of nationwide protests that followed the collapse of a railway station in winter 2024-2025. The Guardian reported in February 2025 that the deaths in the collapse were blamed on graft, meaning corruption, and that the demonstrations were student-led. The protests later became a sustained movement, and in September 2026 the Guardian described it as one of the largest student movements in Europe.
Vučić stepped down as president in September, five months before the end of his second and last constitutional term. According to Reuters, the resignation means he can become prime minister if his party wins. The Guardian says he aims to extend his power in that role. He has been in power for 12 years, a period the Guardian describes as increasingly authoritarian.
The Student List's campaign slogan is "Serbia or Mafia?", a challenge to allegations that the SNS has links to organised crime. The government denies those links. Campaigners have also focused on local problems. In Krnjača, a Belgrade suburb, volunteers went door to door using a mobile app that recorded each visited home and the level of support there. Corruption was the most frequent complaint residents raised, according to the Guardian. Other concerns included the poor repair of the road bridge linking Krnjača to central Belgrade, and a sewage system that repeatedly fails in heavy rain.
Corruption is a long-running issue in Serbia. Transparency International, the anti-corruption organisation that publishes an annual index, ranks Serbia far below each of its neighbours. Only Belarus and Russia rank lower among European countries, the Guardian reports.
A poll reported by Intellinews found the Student List would win 44.5% of votes among decided voters, ahead of the ruling coalition led by Vučić. The Guardian reports that the movement hopes to repeat the April 2026 defeat of Viktor Orbán's government in Hungary, which it sees as a possible domino effect across central Europe.
Many expert observers say the election could be close. They warn that neither side is prepared to accept a loss as legitimate, raising the risk of unrest and clashes after the vote.
