Serbia's Student List Prepares for Talks on Government Without a Clear Leader

Serbia's Student List movement is preparing to start talks on forming a government after winning Sunday's parliamentary election, even though the movement deliberately has no leader and no hierarchy. The Guardian reported that it is not yet clear whom the movement will appoint as prime minister or who will serve in the cabinet.

Projected results from the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, a Belgrade-based organisation, with 100% of ballot samples counted, put the Student List on 53% of the vote. That share corresponds to 141 of the 250 seats in the National Assembly, the country's parliament. Aleksandar Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) was projected at 39%, or 103 seats, with the remaining seats going to lists representing national minority parties.

Vučić conceded defeat late on Sunday. His rule had lasted 14 years. He said his party won around 1.7 million votes, compared with around 2.2 million for the Students' List, according to PBS NewsHour. Student List supporters took to the streets on Monday after his defeat.

The movement grew out of protests that began after the collapse of a canopy at the Novi Sad railway station killed 16 people. Protests against the government over the following two years were triggered by that collapse. The movement's list of candidates included academics, actors and farmers as well as students.

Among its prominent figures are Ilija Srdanović, a cardiologist who headed the candidate list, Dejan Šoškić, a former central bank governor, and Radomir Saičić, a chemistry professor at Belgrade University. Candidate Ana Mirković said the movement's first priority was the social and psychological detoxification of the country.

The platform includes creating an independent police unit that would be accountable to prosecutors rather than the interior ministry, along with a purge of police officers linked to organised crime. The movement also aims to ban the appointment of party loyalists to state-owned companies. These are proposals, and how they would be carried out depends on the government the movement forms.

On foreign policy, the Student List has pledged military neutrality and ruled out seeking membership of NATO, the Western military alliance, Reuters reported. Moscow said it hopes Serbia's new leaders will see ties with Russia as beneficial.