About 150,000 supporters of the student movement in Serbia gathered in the center of Belgrade to demand an end to the dominance of Aleksandar Vučić's party ahead of the parliamentary elections on Sunday. This gathering, known as the "Student List," is an unled movement by candidates supported by students, seeking to challenge 14 years of rule by Serbia's right-wing populist party, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
Gathering at Slavija Square
The crowd estimate for this gathering was announced by an independent group monitoring public gatherings. Participants, holding flags with the slogan "Students are Victorious" and chanting slogans, marched towards Slavija Square, the site of some of the largest protests of this movement. One participant, Marija Nadlkovic Radik, 47, said: "I came to support the Student List because the youth finally gave me hope that it is possible to live in a normal country."
Background of Protests and Demands
This election comes after nearly two years of student protests that began due to a deadly incident involving the collapse of a canopy at the Novi Sad train station in 2024. This incident, which resulted in the deaths of 16 people and was attributed to corruption, sparked some of the largest protests in Serbia since the fall of Slobodan Milošević in 2000. The demands of this movement have expanded from calls for transparent investigations to demands for early elections.
Igor Gasić, a university professor and one of the 250 candidates on this list, told the protesters: "We are ending 14 years of humiliation, chaos, and betrayal, and we are putting an end to decades of prioritizing personal and party interests over the interests of the people." Many of the candidates in this election have been selected from among academics or individuals who have deliberately distanced themselves from the political arena, and the broad agenda of this movement focuses on fighting corruption.
Aleksandar Vučić, who has dominated Serbian politics as either Prime Minister or President for over a decade, announced early elections last month due to increasing pressures. He claimed again to supporters in a sports hall in the capital that the student movement is an attempt at a foreign-funded coup.
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