Serbia’s long-serving leader Vucic concedes defeat in seismic political shift

BELGRADE, Serbia — The long-serving autocratic leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, conceded defeat on Sunday in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government.

It was a seismic political shift in the Balkan country where Vucic, an ally of President Trump who had been endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and who denounced the student movement as a foreign-led attempt to unseat him, led with virtually absolute power for 14 years.

High turnout and gathering tensions marked the highly contested parliamentary election that was a showdown between Vucic’s right-wing Serbian Progressive Party and university students who, accusing the government of corruption and dismantling democracy, had built a popular following across the country.

Serbia’s 6.4 million voters were electing lawmakers to the 250-member Parliament. In conceding the election, Vucic said his party projects that his opponents, the youth-backed Students’ List, will take between 135 and 140 seats while his SNS party will have around 105.

“The Students’ List has won,” Vucic told supporters at his party’s election night event, while he blamed Serbia’s independent media and alleged interference by unnamed European countries and an ”American deep state” for the loss.

Belgrade erupts in celebration

Vucic said that SNS won around 1.7 million votes compared with about 2.2 million for the Students’ List.

Supporters of the Students’ List flooded onto the streets of Belgrade and other cities, honking horns, shouting and chanting: “Aleksandar is gone.”

The outcome, which Vucic announced about an hour and a half after polls closed, came after tensions had built as voting progressed during the day.

Police in anti-riot gear cordoned off an area in central Belgrade around the election commission headquarters. Special police vehicles could be seen near a Belgrade park where Vucic’s loyalists have been camping for over a year, and large groups of black-clad men had congregated at various points throughout the city.

Protests over corruption

Vucic was seeking to become Serbia’s prime minister after serving two near-full terms as president. He resigned the presidency last month to lead the campaign.

Support for the right-wing populist had eroded since 16 people were killed in 2024 when a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in Novi Sad. That set off a wave of youth protests that blamed the collapse on high-level corruption, cronyism and rampant graft during renovation work at the station.

Despite the protests, Vucic retained considerable support among many of Serbia’s voters. Admirers viewed him as a capable leader who could steer the nation through global uncertainties, an image carefully crafted by the mainstream media.

Student movement

While the increasingly authoritarian Vucic has routinely outplayed Serbia’s fractured opposition in the past, the leaderless youth movement proved to be a tough opponent that rattled his firm grip on power in Serbia like no one else in the 14 years since his party took office.

The newly formed Students’ List movement was shaped by university students, but none actually appeared on the election list. Instead, its candidates are little-known experts, athletes, farmers and artists.

This approach was meant to counter Vucic’s one-man rule and restore a sense of community and solidarity. The students’ message during the campaign focused on a nonpartisan effort to rebuild Serbia’s economy and restore its democracy.

The students have used youthful energy to attract voters who are disillusioned with local politicians. Vilified by pro-government media, they cycled and walked through the country to reach voters in rural areas — Vucic’s traditional strongholds.

The student victory echoed the recent electoral defeat of a Vucic ally in Hungary, where youth participation helped oust the autocratic Viktor Orbán — another staunch ally of Trump — after 16 years and bring in a new pro-European government. It was likely to resonate beyond Serbia as countries across Europe have faced angry youth and student protests.

The vote was closely watched in the EU

Monitors predicted that total turnout in the election could reach around 70%, unseen in Serbia since 2000. During the day, long queues formed at polling stations in Serbia and in cities around the world. Some in the Serbian diaspora were required to vote in the middle of the night after authorities tied voting hours to local Serbian time.

Recent Serbian elections had been marred by irregularities, and the European Union was closely watching the conduct of Sunday’s vote.

Independent election monitors reported dozens of cases of irregularities Sunday, such as the photographing of ballots that suggested pressure on voters and attempted vote-buying.

International and local election monitors had expressed concern about the safety and fairness of an election campaign marked by detentions, near-total government control over the media and reports of surveillance and cyberattacks against activists.

Local elections earlier this year in 10 municipalities in Serbia saw violent attacks on journalists and activists. The previous parliamentary vote in 2023 was followed by opposition protests alleging fraud.

Gec and Spike write for the Associated Press.