Serbia Vote Puts Student Movement Against Ruling Party

Polls open across Serbia on Sunday for a parliamentary vote that the Student List entered after nearly two years of protests. The group's candidates campaigned for accountability over a concrete canopy collapse at the Novi Sad railway station in November 2024 that killed 16 people. The Student List has framed the contest as a test of corruption and institutional failure rather than a debate over ideology or foreign policy.

Three points define the race. First, political scientist Dusan Spasojevic said the vote is the first competitive and uncertain election since Aleksandar Vucic took power in 2012, and he said polls suggest the movement could take more than 40% of the vote. Second, the Serbian Progressive Party held a rally in Belgrade hours after the Student List, arguing a vote for the party preserves stability and prosperity while a change of government risks chaos. Third, the campaign has been marked by violence: independent monitoring group CRTA recorded 116 incidents of physical violence or verbal threats by the final week, including confrontations, attacks on campaigners and attempts to seize campaign banners.

Thousands gathered in Belgrade on Thursday evening for the Student List's closing rally, and many had walked for days from across the country. Biology student Arsa Stojanovic told the crowd the walkers crossed the country end to end and visited villages and neighborhoods. Aleksandar Cupic, a professor of transport and traffic engineering and a Student List candidate, said it "smells like freedom." The evening ended with a kolo, a traditional circle dance. A few kilometers away, former President Vucic told supporters that opponents had tried to destroy the country on foreign orders and had attacked the party with billions of euros.

CRTA told DW the campaign has not been free or fair, citing a narrowing of freedoms and deepening inequality. Its report found nearly three-quarters of national television airtime for political players went to government representatives, and more than 80% of coverage of the Student List was negative. The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network published testimony from a former SNS member describing pressure on public-sector employees to deliver votes. DW also heard from anonymous sources that voters were offered between 30 and 150 euros, and in some cases holiday packages for families, to vote for the SNS.

Spasojevic said a decisive win for either camp would be the best outcome, but he said polls point to a narrow margin and a likely post-election crisis. He added that a narrow SNS victory would almost certainly be contested, and the Student List has vowed to defend every vote. Authorities have warned for weeks that students, allegedly aided by foreign intelligence services, are preparing street violence, and several people have been arrested on suspicion of plotting disturbances on election night.

An EU Commission spokesperson told DW that key recommendations on improving Serbia's electoral framework remain unimplemented, and said democracy and the rule of law are central to the accession process. Serbia has been an EU candidate country since 2012.