Serbia students target Vucic party in snap election

Serbia's student-backed movement is trying to unseat the ruling Serbian Progressive Party in snap parliamentary elections on Sunday, after nearly two years of protests that began with the deadly Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse.

The Student List has 250 candidates, most of whom have not held public office. The movement remains largely leaderless, with university-based assemblies voting to select candidates.

The campaign grew out of protests after 16 people were killed when a concrete canopy collapsed at Novi Sad's newly renovated train station in November 2024. The tragedy triggered some of Serbia's largest demonstrations since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 and developed into a challenge to former president Aleksandar Vucic and his right-wing populist Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, which has held power since 2012.

Reliable independent polling is scarce. Right-leaning think tank New Serbian Political Thought published a poll this week putting the Student List ahead of the SNS by 44.5 percent to 42.7 percent. A September poll by Faktor Plus, described as close to the authorities, put the SNS ahead at 48.6 percent and the students at 37.1 percent.

Political scientist Dusan Vucicevic said he expected the students to win more than 40 percent of the vote, but warned that even a victory would leave them with major governing challenges.

Vucic, who resigned in September to run for prime minister, has repeatedly called the movement a foreign-backed coup attempt. Student activists and candidates describe the campaign as a fight against corruption and say they offer an alternative to personality-driven politics.