Serbia 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.
Key points
- Serbians are voting in snap parliamentary elections called by Aleksandar Vucic in September.
- The vote follows nearly two years of student-led protests over corruption and authoritarianism.
- Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party leads the Student List 47 percent to 40 percent in an Ipsos poll.
Serbians are voting in parliamentary elections that pit longtime populist leader Aleksandar Vucic against a mass student protest movement seeking to oust him. Vucic 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. The protests were triggered by the deaths of 16 people when a train station canopy collapsed in the city of Novi Sad in 2024.
Campaign promises and party standing
During the campaign, Vucic promised higher pensions and public sector salaries, investment in state healthcare, and subsidies for young couples. He has balanced closer ties with China and Russia while leaving the door open to joining the European Union.
An Ipsos poll published on Thursday gave Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party 47 percent of the vote and the students' list 40 percent, though other polls have put the students ahead.
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 Verisk Maplecroft
The student movement
The Student List focuses on rooting out corruption and improving schooling, while saying little about its international ambitions. Its 250 largely unfamiliar candidates include university professors, actors and farmers, and it is led by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic.
About 150,000 supporters of the student movement rallied in central Belgrade on Thursday. Vucic and his party have denied accusations of repression, corruption and spying on opponents, and he claims the students are funded by foreign agents in Croatia and Montenegro, a charge the students deny.
