Serbian students win 53% of vote, start 90-day race to form government

Serbia's Student List has no prime minister, no formal hierarchy, and no prior experience in office. It holds 141 of 250 parliamentary seats and has 90 days to build a cabinet that can reverse 14 years of authoritarian rule under Aleksandar Vučić.

The movement’s victory was confirmed when the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy counted 100% of ballot samples. The List captured 53% of the vote. Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, won 39% and 103 seats. National minority lists took the remaining seats.

Vučić conceded defeat late on Sunday. He ended his political dominance after two years of anti-government protests that began following a canopy collapse at the Novi Sad railway station. That accident killed 16 people.

Supporters flooded the streets in Belgrade on Monday. They celebrated the end of a regime that critics described as controlling the media, judiciary, and state institutions. The SNS had long faced allegations of election irregularities, including media bias and voter bribery.

The Student List is composed of academics, actors, farmers, and students. It operates on collective decision-making. Key figures include Ilija Srdanović, a cardiologist who headed the candidate list; Dejan Šoškić, a former central bank governor; and Radomir Saičić, a chemistry professor at Belgrade University who announced the victory.

Ana Mirković, a university educationist and candidate, said the group views its win as a responsibility rather than a gain of privilege. "We do not see the election result as gaining power and privileges, but as taking on a historic debt to our own people and to our own children," she said.

Mirković identified the country's first priority as a social and psychological detoxification. The platform pledges to fight corruption by creating an independent police unit accountable to prosecutors. It also aims to purge police officers linked to organized crime and ban party loyalists from state-owned companies.

The new government must address a bureaucracy staffed by civil servants loyal to the outgoing regime. This mirrors the challenge faced by Péter Magyar’s Tisza party in Hungary earlier this year. The Student List kept foreign policy issues, such as relations with the EU and Russia, in the background during the campaign.

Dušan Vučićević, a political analyst, noted that the movement focused on dismantling domestic institutions first. "This experiment in grassroots democracy ultimately secured more than 50% of the vote," he told Agence France-Presse. However, he added that it remains unclear if this model will work elsewhere.

Nikola Burazer, programme director at the Belgrade-based Centre for Contemporary Politics, said the decision-making process needs to speed up. He noted that choosing candidates took months. "After people are done celebrating and thinking about what happened yesterday, we will focus a bit more on what’s coming up, and how the government will look," Burazer said.

International leaders reacted on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the win a new chapter in the country's history. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Berlin would actively support Serbia's European path, praising the students' demand for the rule of law.

Vučić blamed his defeat on support from European countries and the US deep state. He also cited opposition to President Trump in the United States. The Serbian constitution requires the new parliament to convene within 30 days of the official result. It then has 90 days to form a government. The country must also hold new presidential elections before December 27, as Vučić stepped down to run for prime minister.