BELGRADE, Serbia - Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat in Serbia’s snap parliamentary election after his political bloc lost to the student-led Student List, marking the biggest shift in the country’s politics in more than a decade.
Official results were not yet final, but Vučić said available projections showed the Student List winning between 135 and 140 seats in the 250-member parliament, compared with about 105 for his Serbian Progressive Party-led bloc, according to Reuters. A majority requires 126 seats.
Vučić said the Student List received about 2.2 million votes, while his bloc won roughly 1.7 million, the Associated Press reported.
Nearly Two Years of Protests
The early election followed nearly two years of student-led demonstrations over corruption and democratic standards. The protest movement began after a concrete canopy collapsed at the Novi Sad railway station in 2024, killing 16 people. Demonstrators blamed alleged corruption and failures in oversight during the station’s reconstruction.
Vučić had dominated Serbian politics as prime minister or president since 2014. He resigned as president in September to lead his party’s election campaign and seek the prime minister’s post.
If the preliminary seat projection is confirmed, the Student List will be able to form a parliamentary majority without Vučić’s party.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated the Student List and said the European Union was ready to support reforms involving the rule of law, media freedom, anti-corruption efforts and democratic institutions.
Serbia’s election commission must complete the official count before the final distribution of seats is confirmed.