On a Sunday when Serbians turned out in record numbers, the twelve-year reign of Aleksandar Vučić came to an end at the ballot box. The victory went not to an established party machine but to the Student List, a slate of candidates drawn from the student movement that had spent two years protesting an increasingly authoritarian government, many of them holding doctorates. It is the kind of moment in which a society that has long been pressed from the streets finally finds its voice in the polls. What comes next, however, belongs to a movement that has never had a single leader and must now dec
How Serbia's Student List Ended Vučić's 12-Year Rule at the Ballot Box
Victory secured, the hard part begins
Mark
Why does this result matter beyond Serbia?
Mimi
Because a ruler of 12 years was removed by voters, not by force, and the people who did it were students who started in the streets two years ago.
Mark
What's striking about the candidates themselves?
Mimi
About half hold PhDs. It's a slate built from academics and activists rather than from the usual political class.
Luke
Let me mark what we actually have. Record turnout is reported, but no figures are given. We don't know the percentage or the seat count.
Mark
So how decisive was the win?
Luke
The material says Vučić's rule ended, but it doesn't give a margin. I'd hold back from calling it a landslide.
Mimi
What is clear is the next problem. The movement has no single leader, and it has to pick a prime minister.
Mark
Is there any sign of how they'll do that?
Luke
Not in what's here. That's unknown, and the guests only discuss how they won, not how they will govern.
Mark
And the description of Vučić as increasingly authoritarian?
Luke
That's the Guardian's characterization, and it's consistent with what the protests targeted, but no specific incidents are given in this piece.
O Pulso
- Record crowds at the polls delivered a sharp rebuke to a ruler who had held power for twelve years.
- A list born from student protests, mostly PhD-holding candidates, overturned the expectations of career politicians.
- The movement has no figurehead, and now it must choose a prime minister and build a working government.
- Two years of street pressure have landed in parliament, but the path from victory to governance remains unsettled.
On a Sunday when Serbians turned out in record numbers, the twelve-year reign of Aleksandar Vučić came to an end at the ballot box. The victory went not to an established party machine but to the Student List, a slate of candidates drawn from the student movement that had spent two years protesting an increasingly authoritarian government, many of them holding doctorates. It is the kind of moment in which a society that has long been pressed from the streets finally finds its voice in the polls. What comes next, however, belongs to a movement that has never had a single leader and must now decide how to govern.
On Sunday, Serbians went to the polls in record numbers, and the country's political map shifted beneath them. Aleksandar Vučić, who had governed for twelve years, was voted out. The people who replaced him were not a familiar party but the Student List, a slate put forward by the student activists who had led protests across the Balkan nation for two years. Many of those candidates hold PhDs, and their rise traces directly to the street movement against a government that had grown steadily more authoritarian.
The Guardian's Helen Pidd explored how this happened in a podcast with three guests: Ana Milosavljevic, a Serbian-American journalist; Tara Blagojević, a student activist; and Milica Jovanović, an incoming MP preparing to take a seat for the list. Their conversation traces how a protest movement became an electoral force.
The reporting does not yet provide vote totals, turnout figures, seat counts, or margins. What is clear is the outline: a historic turnout, a decisive rejection of a long-serving leader, and a victory for a list built by students rather than career politicians.
The harder question now is what comes next. The movement has no leader, by design and by history, and it must choose a prime minister and run a country. How it resolves that tension, and whether it can turn an election win into stable government, is what will define the Student List's next chapter.
On Sunday, record numbers of Serbians went to the polls, and the result upended the country's political landscape: the 12-year rule of Aleksandar Vučić was brought to an end at the ballot box.
The alternative voters chose was not a established party machine. It was the Student List, a slate of candidates put forward by student activists, about half of whom hold PhDs. The same students have led protests that have shaken the Balkan country for the past two years.
Those protests were aimed at a government that, over the course of Vučić's time in power, had become increasingly authoritarian. The source describes him as Serbia's authoritarian leader and his regime as growing steadily more so. The election marks the point at which two years of street pressure turned into a decisive vote.
The Guardian's Helen Pidd examined how it happened in a podcast conversation with three guests. Ana Milosavljevic is a Serbian-American journalist. Tara Blagojević is a student activist. Milica Jovanović is an MP-to-be, one of the people now preparing to take a seat in parliament on the Student List's behalf. Together they discuss how the movement managed to defeat Vučić's government.
The summary of the episode does not give the vote totals, the turnout percentage, the number of seats won, or the margin of victory, so those details remain outside this account. What it establishes is the shape of the result: record participation, a clear rejection of a ruler who had held office for 12 years, and a win for a list built by students rather than by career politicians.
Victory raises its own problem. The movement is leaderless, by design and by history, and it now has to do something protest movements rarely face so directly: choose a prime minister and run a country. How a group organized without a single figurehead settles that question is the open issue the episode ends on.
That decision, and how the Student List turns an electoral win into a functioning government, is what to watch next.
Citações Notáveis
The movement is leaderless, so the open question is how it will choose a prime minister and run the country.— The Guardian, podcast description
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Politics & Governance