Less than two years after students first took to the streets over corruption, their movement now has a parliament to run. The Student List won Sunday’s election in Serbia by a wide margin, and Aleksandar Vučić, who has dominated Serbian politics since 2012, admitted defeat the same evening, telling supporters plainly that his side had been beaten.
A projection by pollsters Ipsos and CeSID gives the students close to 53 percent and 141 of the 250 seats, comfortably above the 126 needed to govern alone. Vučić’s United Serbia slate is put at about 39 percent and 103 seats, with six seats for minority parties. The electoral commission was still processing tally sheets overnight, so official numbers remain preliminary.
What tipped the scales was mobilisation. Turnout came in just under 70 percent, the highest since Serbia’s first multiparty vote in 1990, and Serbs abroad queued for hours to take part, in London for up to three.
The defeat leaves Vučić in an awkward spot. He resigned the presidency to lead his list into this race, and his long-time ally Ana Brnabić, once his prime minister, now serves as acting head of state. A presidential election will therefore follow in the coming months, and on Sunday’s numbers his camp starts as the underdog.
European leaders moved quickly. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was among the first to congratulate the winners, in a joint message with European Council chief António Costa, offering help with rule-of-law reforms, while enlargement commissioner Marta Kos wrote that the EU’s door stood “open” to Serbia. The movement itself has been noticeably vague about Brussels, so how far Belgrade’s foreign policy shifts is still an open question.
