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Serbia's student-led protest movement defeated longtime political leader Aleksandar Vučić in a snap parliamentary election after two years of demonstrations.

The Movement: Run by the "Students in Blockade" movement, the "Student List - Students Win" is a list of candidates selected by student assemblies to run the government if elected. Students themselves weren't included in the list; the candidates included doctors, university staff, activists, entrepreneurs and others across Serbia. It didn't name a candidate for prime minister. The List won approximately 140 of 250 seats in Serbia's parliamentary election on Oct. 25 with 52.7% of the vote. Vučić conceded the loss on Sunday night. The movement campaigned on three main priorities: fighting corruption, expanding education and innovation, and pursuing economic reforms.

For Context: The Serbian Progressive party (SNS) has governed since 2012. Vučić, a member of SNS, has served as prime minister from 2014 and 2017 and president of Serbia from 2017 until he resigned in Sept. 2026 to participate in the parliamentary election. His government has faced sustained protests after the 2024 Novi Sad railway station collapse, which killed 16 people. The "Students in Blockade" grassroots student movement led anti-corruption protests after the railway collapse. Vučić's government has denied accusations of corruption.

Uncertainty Ahead: Several outlets focused on what's next for the elected leaders. Fox News (Right bias) emphasized uncertainty from Serbian political leaders about the future of its government and foreign relations. It quoted the Vice President of the SNS who said the List "neither a program nor a coherent political ideology. In an essentially anarchic fashion, it opposed everything, claiming to fight for justice and against corruption." She also told Fox that "people may have wanted change…But the grim consequences of this movement in power will soon become apparent." Reuters (Center) wrote, "Now…comes the gritty business of governing" and that next steps "will determine the political stability of Serbia" and its foreign relations. The outlet also outlined uncertainty over whether the candidates can "form a cohesive government" and make the changes it ran on.

A Historic Election: Commentators on PBS (Lean Left) emphasized the historic nature of the movement and that it was run by young people. During the broadcast, Heather Conley from the American Enterprise Institute compared the win to other anti-corruption election wins since 2000, saying "this was truly people power" and that it's a "strike against Russia and China." An analysis in Foreign Policy (Center) argued that Serbia's student protestors deserved a Nobel Prize after it "proved that youth can achieve transformative change through nonviolent political engagement." Both PBS and Foreign Policy framed the movement as a win against Vučić's "corrupt regime," which controlled the majority of governmental power.

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