Serbia's Vučić concedes as student-led Students' List wins parliamentary vote

Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat on Sunday after Serbia's parliamentary election delivered a majority to the student-led Students' List, ending fourteen years of his leadership of the Serbian Progressive Party.

Vučić told supporters at his party's election-night event that the Students' List was projected to take between 135 and 140 seats in the 250-member Parliament, while his SNS party would hold around 105. In vote totals, he said SNS received approximately 1.7 million votes against the Students' List's roughly 2.2 million.

Turnout was high across Serbia's 6.4 million registered voters. Supporters of the Students' List immediately took to the streets of Belgrade and other cities, with crowds chanting "Aleksandar is gone."

The movement grew out of protests that erupted after 16 people were killed in 2024 when a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in Novi Sad. Demonstrators blamed the disaster on corruption and cronyism during renovation work at the station.

Vučić, who had resigned the presidency last month to lead the campaign as a candidate for prime minister, blamed the result on Serbia's independent media, alleged interference by unnamed European countries and what he called an "American deep state."

Police in anti-riot gear cordoned off the area around the election commission headquarters in central Belgrade as results emerged. Special police vehicles were positioned near a Belgrade park where Vučić's loyalists had been camping for over a year.