Student List claims 140 seats as Vucic concedes defeat

Aleksandar Vucic admitted on Sunday that he lost the snap parliamentary elections to the Student List. The opposition bloc is projected to capture between 135 and 140 of the 250 seats in Serbia's parliament. Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is expected to win 105 seats.

Voter participation reached its highest level in more than three decades. The Student List emerged from a protest movement that began after a train station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024. That accident killed 16 people and sparked a wave of unrest that evolved into a political platform. The group promised to fight corruption and depoliticize public institutions.

Ilija Srdanovic, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad, led the movement during the campaign. Vucic criticized the demonstrators, who included doctors, professors, and workers, by labeling them blockaders. He accused them of trying to destabilize the country. Despite his defeat, Vucic retains significant influence over his party and state policy, even though the Serbian presidency has limited constitutional powers.

Vucic has shaped Serbia's political landscape since 2012. He entered politics in 1993 as a member of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party. He later co-founded the SNS with Tomislav Nikolic in 2008. His political career includes a notable 1995 parliamentary remark made nine days after the Srebrenica genocide. He stated that if one Serb was killed, 100 Muslims would be killed. His mentor, Vojislav Seselj, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018 for crimes committed during the Balkan wars.

Serbia's economy has grown under Vucic's leadership. Unemployment fell from 26 percent to between 8 and 9 percent. Nominal gross domestic product nearly tripled to approximately 90 billion euros. Foreign direct investment hit a record 5.2 billion euros in 2024. However, critics argue that rising wages did not match the cost of living. Safeta Bisevac, a journalist who covers Vucic, noted that the leader established control over the state apparatus while fulfilling few of his initial promises.

Vucic resigned in September under pressure from the student protests and called for early elections. His term was originally scheduled to run until 2027. Dusko Radosavljevic, a political scientist, said the students voiced the justified anger of citizens. He described the past decade as a period of systematic pressure that weakened social institutions and allowed state intelligence to monitor political opponents.

The next phase of Serbian politics will see the Student List attempt to form a government. The party aims to restore citizens' rights and manage the state's public debt. Vucic's party will hold a substantial minority in the new parliament.