Aleksandar Vučić, who ruled Serbia for 14 years, conceded defeat Sunday in a snap parliamentary election and said the student-led opposition won.
“It is clear that we have lost these elections,” Vučić said late Sunday, before official results came out. Working from a vote sample, he put the Student List at 135 to 140 seats in the 250-seat chamber and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) at about 105. A majority takes 126. A CeSID and Ipsos sample put the students at 138 seats and the SNS at 104, with 52% of the vote against 39.3% for Vučić’s bloc. By his count, the students won about 2.2 million votes to 1.7 million for the SNS.
Vučić quit the presidency in September and sought the premiership instead. A new presidential election is due by the end of December, and he said his movement will work from the opposition benches. Vladimir Putin had endorsed him. He blamed independent media, unnamed European countries and alleged American interference for the loss.
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Turnout stood at 64.9% at 6 p.m., two hours before polls closed, according to the State Election Commission, the highest since Yugoslavia’s breakup in 1992. Independent monitors said the final figure could approach 70%, though estimates differ. The monitoring group CRTA found pressure on voters or poll workers at nearly one in three of the 500 stations it visited, along with lapses in ballot secrecy. CeSID logged roughly 260 possible irregularities by 5 p.m., including photographed ballots and voters arriving in groups.
The Student List, headed by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic, grew out of protests after a concrete canopy collapse at Novi Sad’s railway station killed 16 people in November 2024. Protesters blamed corruption and abuse of power by the SNS, which has governed since 2012. Vučić and his party reject the charge. The ballot lists no students. Its candidates come from expert fields, sports, farming and the arts.
Fireworks lit up Belgrade after the announcement, and tens of thousands filled its main avenues. Demonstrators took down tents that Vučić loyalists had kept in a central park for over a year. Celebrations also broke out in Novi Sad and several more towns.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa congratulated the Student List and promised support for reforms on corruption, media freedom and the rule of law. Costa called the turnout a record.
Vučić has spoken favorably of President Donald Trump and backed his administration’s actions in a UN speech. The White House did not immediately comment. Republican Rep. Joe Wilson, who co-chairs the Helsinki Commission, welcomed the outcome and said it would drive Chinese Communist Party influence out of Serbia and reduce its reliance on Russian energy.
Observers have compared him to Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, another Russia-friendly leader. Orbán lost Hungary’s April election to Péter Magyar after 16 years in power.
The Student List has yet to name a prime minister, and final results are pending. Srdanovic promised to start building a rule-of-law state Monday. Any new government must balance ties with Russia, Serbia’s main gas supplier, the EU, its largest trading partner, and China, a major investor.
