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Student movement: Thousands on the streets in Serbia ahead of new elections
Three days before the parliamentary elections on Sunday, a huge crowd came to the final rally of the opposition "Student List" in the Serbian capital Belgrade.
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Student movement Tens of thousands protest before new elections in Serbia As of: October 23, 2026 • 7:26 a.m
On Sunday the Serbs will elect a new parliament. The opposition "Student List" is running against Vucic's party - tens of thousands of people came to their final rally in Belgrade.
Three days before parliamentary elections in Serbia, tens of thousands of opposition supporters demonstrated for an end to President Aleksandar Vucic's government. The supporters of the student list marched through the streets of Belgrade - finally gathering in Salvija Square. Around 150,000 people are said to have taken part in the rally.
The "Student List - The Students Win" has set itself the goal of ending the more than 14-year-long government of Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Sunday's parliamentary elections.
Six months before the end of his mandate, Vucic resigns as Serbian president. With this step he wants to become Prime Minister. more
Vucic resigned from his position as president at the end of September after nine years. He is now running for the post of head of government, which he already held three years before becoming president.
With his resignation, he cleared the way for new elections on Sunday and thus met a main demand of the student protest movement that arose after the collapse of a train station canopy in the city of Novi Sad in November 2024.
The protests, which were mainly carried out by students, were initially primarily about coming to terms with the accident in which 16 people died. The themes of the demonstrations later expanded to include general criticism of the government and widespread corruption in the country. For years, Vucic has presented himself as a reformer and has been committed to Serbia's accession to the EU. At the same time, despite Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Vucic continues to rely on his country's good relations with Russia.
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