Celebrations in Serbia after veteran ruler Vučić loses election to student-led protest movement

Serbia’s long-standing leader Aleksandar Vučić has admitted defeat to a student-led protest movement in snap parliamentary elections.

Celebrations erupted as crowds descended on the centre of Belgrade, Novi Sad and other cities.

The student movement was formed less than two years ago in response to a railway station disaster blamed on corruption and negligence, but fought the election with candidates from a cross-section of Serbian society.

“It is clear we have lost these elections,” right-wing populist leader Vučić said as he conceded late on Sunday, citing preliminary figures that gave the students 2.2 million votes and his party 1.72 million.

The students were on course to win 52.9% of the vote, according to a later projection by independent pollsters CeSID, with the highest turnout for years of 69.34%.

Vučić had spent two terms as president and could not seek a third term, so was leading his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) with the aim of returning to the post of prime minister, which he left in 2017.

He called the snap elections after two years of protests triggered by the collapse of a canopy in front of Novi Sad station which killed 16 people.

The Student List’s lead candidate Ilija Srdanović told BBC Serbian: “This will be a free state.”

He said the anti-corruption movement, which had attracted anti-government voters across Serbia, hoped to “free the country from tyranny”.

There were celebrations on the streets of the city, with people dancing and chanting “victory”, cars honking, and fireworks set off. “Serbia is free,” one student told the BBC. “It’s a miracle.”

During a celebration speech, Student List candidate Radomir Saicic said Serbians had shown “no obstacle was greater than their will”, Reuters reported. “No force can forever overpower a people who have decided to take their destiny into their own hands,” he added.

Amid scenes of people dancing in the streets Belgrade, Selena Lebovic said the result was “really fabulous”.

“We are all crying, and what to say. We couldn’t believe that it would be so easy,” she told Reuters.

Vučić made his announcement at the headquarters of his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the capital Belgrade.

The centre of Novi Sad – the northern city that triggered the student-led protests – was crowded. “Everything is going to get better now,” David Vasić, one of those celebrating, told BBC Serbian.

The Student List – which has no obvious leaders and whose members are not used to politics – had attracted anti-government voters across Serbia.

It decided to field candidates to the 250-member parliament from across Serbian society including doctors, actors, academics and sports personalities.

The anti-corruption movement campaigned on a manifesto that included purging officials who broke rules cracking down on protesters, stopping party loyalists from leading public enterprises, and freeing the public broadcaster of political control.

Vučić and the SNS party have repeatedly denied corruption.

Vučić, who backed Serbia’s candidacy for the European Union while refusing to impose sanctions on Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, had pledged to increase pensions and public sector salaries, and investment in state healthcare.

His defeat was welcomed by Hungary’s prime minister, Péter Magyar, who said he was delighted to hear from the Student List’s leaders “how much strength our victory in April had given them”. Magyar’s party ended 16 years of Viktor Orbán rule, while Vučić’s SNS party had been in power since 2012.

European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said “a new chapter can begin for Serbia. The door to the EU is open, and we are ready to move forward together”.

Earlier in the day, long queues were seen outside polling stations in cities and towns across Serbia.

This was also the case outside booths in a number of countries with sizeable Serbian communities – including Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana, Germany’s Munich, and Los Angeles and Chicago in the US.

In France, Serbian voters waited in line in heavy rain in Paris.

The election was held amid high tensions across Serbia, with police sealing off streets around the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) in Belgrade.

Attention will now turn to who will lead the Student List as prime minister. Presidential elections are due to take place in December, with parliament speaker Ana Brnabić currently filling the role in a caretaker capacity.