Tens of Thousands Rally in Belgrade Ahead of Serbia's Parliamentary Vote
Tens of thousands of supporters of Serbia's student-led opposition movement gathered in central Belgrade on October 22 for a final rally before the parliamentary election, Al Jazeera reported. Marchers converged on Slavija Square, and AFP reported that students had travelled from across Serbia to join them.
On the same day, President Aleksandar Vucic held a rival rally at a sports hall elsewhere in Belgrade. Two days earlier, on October 21, he had addressed a pre-election rally at King Milan Square in Nis, a city in southern Serbia, in front of thousands of supporters, according to AP.
The vote is scheduled for October 25. Vucic resigned the presidency in September 2026 to run for prime minister and called the snap election, an early vote held ahead of the regular schedule. He said in September that he would run for prime minister in the October 25 election, according to Reuters. Earlier in August, he had said the vote would take place on either October 18 or 25.
Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has been in power for more than 14 years. The student movement grew out of protests that followed the 2024 collapse of a canopy, the roof-like cover over the platforms, at the newly renovated railway station in Novi Sad. The collapse killed 16 people. Student-led demonstrations against Vucic's rule have continued for almost two years.
The Student List is running 250 candidates for the 250 seats in parliament, with a platform centred on fighting corruption. In January, university students proposed banning corrupt officials from politics and investigating their wealth. Larger rallies followed in the spring and early summer, including tens of thousands in Belgrade in March 2025 and a demand for early elections in northern Serbia in June 2026.
Ahead of the vote, AP reported that the SNS and the youth-backed Students' List were believed to be running close, which made the outcome uncertain. Security has also been a theme of the campaign. Six people arrested on suspicion of plotting violence, riots and attacks on election day were questioned by prosecutors on the Wednesday before the rallies.
