Serbia's Student Movement Sweeps to Power as Vucic Concedes Historic Defeat

BELGRADE — Serbia woke to a new political era on Monday after a student-backed protest movement swept longtime leader Aleksandar Vucic from power in a historic parliamentary election, ending his party's 14-year grip on government.

With almost 99 percent of votes counted, the Student List won 52.7 percent of the vote and 139 seats in the 250-seat parliament, according to the State Election Commission, against 39.2 percent and 97 seats for Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party-led alliance, with the remaining seats held by minority parties. Vucic, who has dominated Serbian politics as prime minister or president since 2014, conceded defeat in a televised speech on Sunday night, saying: "It is clear that we have lost these elections, the Student List has won." Tens of thousands of people poured onto the streets of Belgrade and other cities to celebrate, in scenes echoing another weekend election upset in Brazil.

The snap election, called by Vucic in September, followed 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 Novi Sad in 2024. The movement now faces its first test: turning protest into government. Follow world news for what the new majority does first.