Serbia will hold a snap parliamentary election on October 25 . The vote is seen as a test of whether President Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) can extend its 14-year grip on power and stave off a student-led movement born out of mass anti-government protests. In November 2024, the collapse of a concrete canopy at a railway station in Novi Sad killed 16 people.
What began as demands for accountability over the disaster grew into a nationwide movement against alleged corruption and the government’s handling of the tragedy. Students emerged as the movement’s driving force, organising some of Serbia’s biggest demonstrations since the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic. Their campaign has channelled deep frustration with the SNS, which has governed since 2012, and with a conventional opposition seen as fragmented and ineffective.
The parliamentary election was not due until late 2027. But Vucic resigned from the presidency in September, ahead of the end of his second and final constitutional term, and is leading the SNS campaign for prime minister. The manoeuvre has made the parliamentary contest central to his effort to retain political power before a separate presidential election must be held.
The main challenger is the student-backed Student List–Students Win (Studentska lista–Studenti pobeduju), which brings together candidates with little or no previous political experience, including academics, teachers and other professionals. It is campaigning on restoring the rule of law, ending corruption and rebuilding institutions, rather than focusing on divisive questions such as Kosovo, European Union membership or relations with Russia. Young people, long considered the country’s most politically disengaged group, have become the core of its largest social mobilisation in decades, she said.
Some opposition parties have chosen not to run and instead support the student list. Others are contesting the election but face the prospect of failing to clear the threshold for parliament. As a result, many see the vote as not simply a contest between parties, but a referendum on whether the SNS system should continue.
The outcome will shape whether Serbia attempts to reset institutions that critics say have been hollowed out by years of party control. The SNS rejects allegations of abuse and corruption, but its opponents and rights groups accuse it of putting pressure on independent media, electoral malpractice and using state resources to maintain power. For Vasiljevic, turnout will be decisive.
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