Serbia Votes to Unseat Decade-Long Leader Amid Student Protest Wave

Serbia is heading to the ballot box for an election that pits a decades-long ruler against a rising tide of student activists. The latest numbers show Aleksandar Vucic, the populist leader at the center of the storm, facing off in a neck-and-neck battle with the anticorruption and anti-authoritarian movement. Voters are stepping up to decide the future of this nation of roughly six million people while a massive protest wave seeks to unseat Vucic. He has held power as both prime minister and president for over ten years.

These snap elections, triggered by Vucic himself in September, come after nearly two years of street demonstrations led by students. They are fighting against what they see as corruption and creeping authoritarianism. The unrest started with a tragedy: sixteen people died when a train station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad back in 2024. That event was the spark that set everything off.

Since then, the students have won over broad support from across the country. If Vucic loses this vote, it would signal a massive political shift in the Balkans, echoing the defeat of Viktor Orban in Hungary earlier this year. But Vucic is not an easy opponent to topple. He resigned as president last month just to run again for prime minister and remains a formidable incumbent. Many citizens credit him with lifting Serbia out of economic darkness and steering a long period of modernization.

"The Serbian election is shaping up to be a watershed moment for the country as the Student List mounts the biggest challenge against Vucic yet," said Mario Bikarski, a senior Europe analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, speaking to Reuters news agency. During his campaign trail, Vucic has made promises to boost pensions and public sector pay, pour money into state healthcare, and offer subsidies for young couples starting families. He has also walked a tight line between closer ties with China, which is a major investor, and Russia, Serbia's traditional ally and main gas supplier, all while keeping the possibility of joining the European Union on the table.

Yet relations with the EU have grown strained under his watch. The bloc is increasingly annoyed by a lack of reforms touching the judiciary, the rule of law, and corruption issues. The Student List movement focuses its agenda on rooting out graft and fixing schools, saying little about their international goals. Their slate includes 250 candidates who are largely unknown to the public, ranging from university professors and actors to farmers. They are led by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic.

Polls suggest a very close fight is ahead. An Ipsos survey released Thursday puts Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party at 47 percent of the vote against the students' 40 percent, though other surveys have shown the student bloc running slightly ahead. Rights groups and activists warn that repression has gotten worse since the deadly canopy collapse, an event widely blamed on government corruption and used to ignite the protests. Around 150,000 backers of the student movement gathered in central Belgrade on Thursday to show their strength.

Vucic and his party have consistently denied accusations of spying on opponents or engaging in repression. The former president claims the students are being funded by foreign agents from Croatia and Montenegro, a charge the students flatly deny. This election carries heavy weight for communities across the region, where young people feel unheard and fear their leaders will ignore them once again.