Get you up to speed: Serbia votes in election pitting longtime leader against student movement
Serbians are voting in parliamentary elections amid a strong challenge from the Student List movement against longtime leader Aleksandar Vucic. The elections follow nearly two years of student-led protests against corruption and authoritarianism, sparked by a deadly incident in Novi Sad in 2024.
The parliamentary elections in Serbia were triggered by a snap call from Aleksandar Vucic in September, following nearly two years of protests. Key issues for voters include concerns over corruption and authoritarianism, particularly in light of events surrounding the 2024 train station canopy collapse that claimed 16 lives.
The Serbian government has faced growing criticism from rights groups and activists regarding worsening repression against the backdrop of student protests. Polling indicates a close race, with an Ipsos survey showing Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party at 47 per cent, compared to the Student List’s 40 per cent, as both sides prepare for a significant political showdown.
What remains unclear — It is uncertain whether Vucic’s promises of higher pensions and public sector salaries will influence voter turnout in these elections.
Serbia holds parliamentary elections amid student protests challenging Vucic
News|ElectionsSerbia votes in election pitting longtime leader against student movement
Polls show populist leader Aleksandar Vucic in a tight race against the anticorruption and anti-authoritarian movement.
Published On 25 Oct 202625 Oct 2026
Serbians are voting in parliamentary elections amid a mass student protest movement that seeks to oust longtime populist leader Aleksandar Vucic, who has held power as prime minister and then president for more than a decade.
The snap elections, called by Vucic in September, follow almost two years of student-led demonstrations against perceived corruption and creeping authoritarianism, triggered by the deaths of 16 people when a train station canopy collapsed in the city of Novi Sad in 2024.
The students have since gained widespread support.
A loss for Vucic would mark a profound political shift in the Balkan country of some 6 million people, reminiscent of the defeat of Hungary’s Viktor Orban in April.
But Vucic, who resigned as president in September to run again for prime minister, is a strong incumbent. Many voters thank him for pulling Serbia out of economic obscurity and orchestrating a period of sustained modernisation.
“The Serbian election is shaping up to be a watershed moment for the country as the Student List mounts the biggest challenge against Vucic yet,” Mario Bikarski, senior Europe analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, told the Reuters news agency.
During the campaign, Vucic has promised higher pensions and public sector salaries, investment in state healthcare, and subsidies for young couples. He has balanced closer ties with China, a major investor, and Russia, Serbia’s traditional ally and principal supplier of natural gas, while leaving the door open to joining the European Union.
But relations with the EU have frayed under his leadership, with the bloc growing increasingly frustrated over a lack of reforms addressing the judiciary, the rule of law and corruption.
The Student List movement’s agenda focuses on rooting out corruption and improving schooling, while saying little about their international ambitions.
Their roster of 250 largely unfamiliar candidates, including university professors, actors and farmers, is led by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic.
Supporters wave a flag showing Serbia’s populist leader Aleksandar Vucic during a pre-election rally of the governing Serbian Progressive Party in Novi Sad, Serbia, on October 16, 2026, ahead of parliamentary elections [Darko Vojinovic/AP]
Opinion polls are predicting a tight race.
An Ipsos poll published on Thursday gives Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party 47 percent of the vote to the students’ 40 percent, though other polls have put the students ahead.
Rights groups and activists say repression has worsened since the deadly train station canopy collapse, which was widely blamed on government corruption and sparked the student demonstrations.
About 150,000 supporters of the student movement rallied in central Belgrade on Thursday.
Vucic and his party have repeatedly denied accusations of repression, corruption and spying on their opponents.
The former president claims the students are funded by foreign agents in Croatia and Montenegro, a charge the students deny.