Serbia’s Students Defeat Vučić—but Winning Power May Prove Harder Than Winning the Vote

Serbia’s Students Defeat Vučić—but Winning Power May Prove Harder Than Winning the Vote
Aleksandar Vučić’s defeat marks a dramatic rupture in Serbia’s political order, but the celebrations obscure a harder question: can a protest movement now turn public anger into effective government?

The result was framed in sharply different ways. For Vučić’s opponents, it was a popular uprising finally translated into electoral power after nearly two years of demonstrations. The liberal account describes crowds flooding Belgrade and Novi Sad, tearing down the tents of Vučić’s loyalists and reclaiming streets where protesters had faced police batons, tear gas and an alleged sound cannon. One celebrant called it “a symbol for Europe and the world” and “a demonstration of how freedom can defeat evil.”

The conservative source offered a far more stripped-down framing, presenting the vote as a parliamentary election in which a “strongman” faced protesting students. That description captures the contest’s central personal dimension, but says little about the movement’s governing program or the institutional problems it inherits.

Those problems are substantial. Vučić conceded that the Students’ List could win 135 to 140 of parliament’s 250 seats, against roughly 105 for his SNS party, according to preliminary figures. Yet the new bloc is a broad coalition of candidates—including academics, farmers and athletes—and deliberately left divisive issues such as EU membership to a referendum while maintaining Serbia’s claim over Kosovo.

That ambiguity helped unite voters against an increasingly authoritarian government, but may complicate governing. “The people have won! The people defeated a dictator!” a supporter told Reuters. The slogan captures the election’s emotional force; it does not resolve how the students will dismantle corruption, restore press freedoms or manage Serbia’s most contentious foreign-policy choices. The movement has won its breakthrough. Its credibility will now depend on what follows the celebration.