Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has conceded defeat to a student-led protest movement in snap parliamentary elections, triggering celebrations across the country after two years of anti-government demonstrations.
The long-serving right-wing populist leader admitted late on Sunday that his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) had lost, although final election results had yet to be announced.
“We still do not have final results… it is clear that we have lost these elections,” Vučić said at his party’s headquarters in Belgrade.
Preliminary figures from Serbia’s election commission indicated record voter turnout, which political commentators had suggested would favour the student movement.
The announcement sparked celebrations in Belgrade and other cities, with crowds dancing, chanting victory sounding car horns and setting off fireworks.
“Serbia is free,” one student. It’s a miracle.”
The election followed two years of demonstrations triggered by the collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad, which killed 16 people.
The disaster became a symbol of alleged corruption and negligence, fuelling a protest movement that grew into a nationwide challenge to Vučić’s government.
Vučić called the snap election after sustained pressure from protesters.
Having served two presidential terms, he could not seek a third and instead led the SNS campaign with the aim of returning as prime minister, a position he left in 2017.
The Student List, which emerged from the protest movement, attracted anti-government voters across Serbia despite having no single recognised leader and fielding candidates with limited political experience.
Its lead candidate, Ilija Srdanović, welcomed the election outcome.
“This will be a free state, adding that the movement hoped to “free the country from tyranny.”
The Student List fielded candidates from different sections of Serbian society for the country’s 250-member parliament, including doctors, actors, academics and sports personalities.
Its campaign focused on tackling corruption, removing officials accused of breaking rules while suppressing protesters, ending political appointments to public enterprises and freeing the public broadcaster from political control.
Vučić and his SNS party have repeatedly denied allegations of corruption.
Addressing supporters during the celebrations, Student List candidate Radomir Saicic said voters had demonstrated that “no obstacle was greater than their will.”
“No force can forever overpower a people who have decided to take their destiny into their own hands.”
In Belgrade, supporters gathered in the streets to celebrate the result.
Selena Lebovic described the outcome as “really fabulous. We are all crying, and what to say. We couldn’t believe that it would be so easy.”
Celebrations also filled the centre of Novi Sad, where the railway station disaster first sparked the student-led protests. “Everything is going to get better now,” resident David Vasić said.
The election commission’s preliminary figures showed that 64.9 per cent of eligible voters had cast their ballots by 18:00 local time, two hours before polling stations closed.
Long queues formed outside polling stations across Serbia, while Serbian citizens abroad also turned out in large numbers.
Queues were reported in Ljubljana, Munich, Los Angeles and Chicago. In Paris, voters waited in heavy rain to cast their ballots.
The election took place amid heightened tensions, with police sealing off streets surrounding the Republic Electoral Commission in Belgrade.
During the campaign, Vučić pledged higher pensions, increased public sector salaries and greater investment in state healthcare.
He also maintained his support for Serbia’s European Union membership bid while refusing to impose sanctions on Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The student movement’s victory marks a major political setback for Vučić and the SNS, which had dominated Serbian politics for years.
Final results are still awaited.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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