From protests to power: How Serbia's students triumphed

Dawn · 26/10/2026، 2:46:21 PM

Serbia’s long-running student protest movement celebrated a historic win in the country’s election, ending 14 years of rule by the country’s right-wing populist leader Aleksandar Vucic . Born out of nearly two years of anti-corruption protests sparked by a deadly railway station canopy collapse , the Students’ List is now eyeing a majority. Here some key points about Serbia’s student-led movement as its candidates prepare to form government. How did Serbia’s student movement start? On Nov 1, 2024 , a concrete awning at the entrance to Novi Sad train station collapsed, killing 16 people and sparking outcry over the tragedy at the newly renovated station. Demanding a swift investigation, peaceful protests grew over months into some of the largest demonstrations recorded since the fall of strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. From the start, university students led the protests, blockading faculties and organising nationwide rallies. The movement is deliberately leaderless and built around collective decision-making. Just over a month before the second anniversary of the disaster, Vucic announced early elections, and the students assembled an electoral list drawn largely from academia and professional circles. They are all deliberately outside any major political party. A burned election campaign banner of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is pictured at a pro-government encampment in a park opposite the Serbian Parliament in Belgrade on Oct 26, 2026, after crowds celebrating election results entered the site the previous night and dismantled tents that had occupied the area for months, setting them alight along with a number of cars. — AFP How did it win? The movement built its campaign around opposing Vucic, setting aside issues that could divide its supporters. “In order to win an election, the students needed the support of both groups of voters: those who are pro-European and those who are Eurosceptic,” political analyst Dusan Vucicevic told AFP . Its campaign f