Russian-friendly Vucic concedes defeat to student protest movement in Serbian election
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Former Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat in parliamentary elections on Oct. 25 to the student-led protest movement that has gripped the nation for months.
“Based on a stratified sample, it is clear that we have lost this election. The student blockade list won,” Vucic said in a press briefing.
According to Vucic, the Students' List party, backed by the protest coalition, is projected to take between 135 and 140 seats in Serbia's Parliament. Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party appears to have come in second in the elections, and will have 105 seats in Parliament.
For almost two years, student-led demonstrations in Serbia rallied against Vucic's right-wing incumbent Serbian Progressive Party. Protesting against alleged corruption in the government, the movement was triggered when a train station canopy in the city of Novi Sad collapsed in 2024, killing 16.
Vucic previously announced his resignation as Serbia's president on Sept. 27, allowing him to run as prime minister in the nation's October parliamentary elections.
Vucic, having served as either Serbia’s prime minister or president since 2014, was known as a right-wing populist leader with authoritarian tendencies and warm ties with Russia.
The elections saw Serbia's highest voter turnout, 70%, since the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1992, according to Reuters.
The election results are being hailed as a momentous political shift for Serbia, potentially turning the Balkan country away from ties with Russia and Vladimir Putin, who endorsed Vucic.
The defeat of Serbia's right-wing government echoes recent elections in Hungary. In April, populist leader Viktor Orban, also endorsed by Putin, was defeated in a landslide election.
