Student protests reach Serbia ahead of final election rally

• Tens of thousands gathered in Belgrade for final campaign events ahead of Sunday's parliamentary elections.
• The leaderless, student-backed Student List poses the biggest threat to Aleksandar Vučić's 14-year rule and ruling SNS party.
• The election follows nearly two years of protests sparked by the deadly 2024 Novi Sad station canopy collapse blamed on corruption.
• Civil society groups warned of unfair election conditions, citing intimidation, arrests, media bias, and state resource abuse.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered in central Belgrade on Thursday alongside duelling final events hosted by Serbia's longtime leader Aleksandar Vucic, marking the end of the campaign ahead of Sunday's pivotal parliamentary elections.

The Student List, a leaderless movement featuring student-backed candidates, is challenging Vucic’s right-wing populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in an effort to end its more than 14-year hold on power.

The movement represents the most significant electoral threat Vucic has faced since his party assumed power in 2012.

The vote follows nearly two years of student-led anti-corruption demonstrations sparked by the 2024 collapse of a canopy at the newly renovated Novi Sad railway station, which resulted in 16 deaths.

Widely attributed to state corruption, the tragedy ignited some of Serbia's largest public protests since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, eventually expanding from demands for an investigation into calls for early elections.

Waving "Students are winning" flags, blowing whistles, and chanting, demonstrators marched through Belgrade before converging on Slavija Square, a central site of their ongoing protest movement.

"I came to support the Student List because young people finally gave me hope that it is possible to live in a normal country," 47-year-old rally attendee Marija Nedeljkovic Radic told AFP. "Really, for the first time in my life, I believe that it is possible."

Across town at a capital sports hall, 56-year-old Vucic—who resigned as president to run for prime minister after calling the snap vote last month—addressed his supporters. Vucic rejected the student movement, accusing it of being a foreign-funded coup attempt.

"Let us never forget how they tried to bring down our state. Let us always protect and defend it," Vucic told the crowd. "Let us go out and defeat them! Defeat them decisively!"

Many of the 250 candidates fielded by the Student List for the 250-seat parliament are drawn from academia or are political outsiders whose primary platform centers on combating systemic corruption.

Political scientist Dusan Vucicevic from Belgrade University told AFP he expects the student list to capture over 40 percent of the vote, marking the largest opposition result since the SNS came to power.

Days ahead of the poll, a coalition of 24 Serbian civil society organizations issued a joint statement warning that the campaign lacked the baseline conditions required for free and fair elections.

"This assessment is not based on isolated incidents, opposition claims or political disagreement with the government," the statement read. "It is supported by documented findings from independent Serbian organisations working in different fields."

The warnings follow reports of growing intimidation, threats, attacks, media distortion, and the misuse of public resources targeting student activists. On Wednesday, Belgrade prosecutors questioned six individuals arrested on suspicion of plotting violence and attacks on election day.

Despite reported threats, the student demonstrations have remained largely peaceful.

"I've been following this fight since the very beginning," 35-year-old attendee Igor told reporters at the Belgrade rally. "Today is the last rally, and it's important that we all come here to send a message of love and peace and that we see each other on the 25th at the polling stations."