Serbia's student-led movement ends 14 years of Vucic rule in snap election

Serbia's student-led movement won Sunday's snap parliamentary elections, ending 14 years in power for Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party, according to preliminary results.

Vucic conceded defeat less than two hours after polls closed. He said the outcome reflected what he called direct support from various European countries and the US deep state, and blamed foreign powers for the result.

Candidate Radomir Saicic said the Students' List was leading convincingly at almost all polling stations. He said students had won, along with hope that Serbia could become a country of justice, freedom and dignity.

Voters turned out in the highest numbers for a Serbian parliamentary election in more than three decades. By 6:00 pm local time, nearly 65 percent of the country's 6.4 million registered voters had cast ballots, surpassing the 2000 parliamentary election figure of just over 61 percent.

Preliminary figures cited by Vucic suggested the student movement could take between 135 and 140 seats in the 250-seat parliament, giving it an outright majority.

The movement's rise followed nearly two years of anti-government protests sparked by the 2024 collapse of a canopy at Novi Sad railway station that killed 16 people. The disaster was widely attributed to corruption.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen was among international figures to react to the result. Thousands celebrated in Belgrade's streets after polls closed, with fireworks and crowds chanting in the capital.