Serbia's Students Fill Belgrade Square Ahead of Snap Vote Challenging Vucic's Decade of Power

On Thursday, crowds converged on Belgrade's central square from every direction, spilling into the streets for several blocks around it. The Archive of Public Gatherings, an independent group that monitors crowd sizes, put the turnout at about 150,000 people. It was the final campaign rally before Sunday's snap parliamentary election, and the crowd chanted "victory" as it gathered.

The rally was held for the Student List, a leaderless movement of student-backed candidates that has become the greatest threat to Aleksandar Vucic, the populist strongman who has dominated Serbian politics for more than a decade, first as prime minister and then as president. The movement grew out of two years of protests against his government.

Those protests began with a disaster in 2024, when a canopy collapsed at the newly renovated railway station in Novi Sad and killed 16 people. What started as a demand for an independent investigation into the collapse grew into a broader anti-corruption movement led by university students, and eventually into calls for early elections. Sunday's vote is the result of that pressure.

Marija Nedeljkovic Radic, 47, told the French news agency AFP as she arrived at the rally that young people had given her hope that it is possible to live in a normal country. "For the first time in my life, I believe that it is possible," she said. On stage, Jugoslav Gasic, a university professor and one of 250 candidates on the Student List, spoke of ending 14 years of humiliation, chaos and betrayal. "You deserve better, and we know how to deliver it," he told the crowd. "Students are winning!"

Vucic announced the snap election last month as the protests intensified. He has resigned as the country's president, though many observers argue the move is tactical, clearing the way for him to run for prime minister. For his Serbian Progressive Party, known as the SNS, which has held power since 2012, this is the most serious electoral challenge it has faced.

Vucic has regularly accused the student movement of being a foreign-funded coup. On Thursday he addressed supporters in a sports hall and urged them never to forget how, in his words, the movement tried to bring down the state. "Let us go out and defeat them," he said. "Defeat them decisively!"

Civil society groups have raised concerns about the conditions of the vote. A joint statement from 24 organisations, issued days before the election, said conditions for a free and fair vote were lacking. The groups said the assessment did not rest on isolated incidents, opposition claims or political disagreement with the government, but on documented findings.

Analysts worry about what follows if the result is close. If both sides declare victory, they warn, the country could face post-election instability. Vucic, who controls the Serbian police, has said he would quash any unrest after the vote.

Several minor parties are also competing for the premiership, but observers describe the contest as a referendum between Vucic and the student movement, a framing that could sideline the smaller parties in the 250-seat parliament. The result on Sunday, and whether both camps accept it, will show how the standoff that began at Novi Sad ends.