From the streets to the ballot box: Serbia’s students hope for election win

Young Serbians have built a system that poses a threat to President Aleksandar Vucic’s grip on power. Save Share It all began on the streets. A student-led movement has emerged as the most serious challenger to the long rule of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its leader,Aleksandar Vucic, ahead of Sunday’s election. Over the past two years, many citizens, teachers, professors and other experts have joined the students, a protest group that has evolved into a political movement: “Student List–Students Win” (Studentska lista–Studenti pobeđuju). The catalyst came after the collapse of a concrete canopy at the renovated Novi Sad railway station on November 1, 2024. Sixteen people were killed in the tragedy, which triggered public outrage over alleged corruption and raised questions about construction safety, the quality of renovation work, and government oversight. Students who led protests have sought a fundamental overhaul of a system they deem rotten. Kosta Golubovic, a law student at the University of Novi Sad, has been involved since day one. “Change is clearly necessary. The state must belong to its people, not to the mafia and criminals,” he told Al Jazeera. “The way they treat the judiciary, the catastrophic conditions at the local level, mayors resorting to violence, dying villages – along with dubious privatisations, money laundering, the erosion of every single institution, police being replaced by thugs, and an education system vanishing before our eyes… these are some of the reasons why change is needed,” said Golubovic. Demonstrations transformed into the biggest protest movement in Serbia in years, joined by tens of thousands. The students have not called for the overthrow of Vucic. But their persistence created one of the biggest threats to the president’s long grip on power. Vucic became prime minister in 2014. In 2017, he was elected president, a traditionally ceremonial role that he has bolstered by maintaining influence over his SNS party. Opposition parties and rights watchdogs accuse Vucic and his SNS party of bribing voters, stifling media freedom, violence against opponents, and ties with organised crime. Vucic and his allies deny these allegations. But Serbia’s rating on Transparency International’s global corruption index has worsened gradually in recent years. “Vucic is clearly afraid of us – it’s obvious....