Massive student-led rally marches in Belgrade ahead of Serbian election

The Student List, a leaderless movement of student-backed candidates, wants to end more than 14 years of rule by Vucic's rightwing populist Serbian Progressive party (SNS) in Sunday's vote. Civil society groups have said the campaign has been marred by intimidation, arrests and misuse of public resources.

Protest origins

Sunday's vote comes after nearly two years of student-led protests sparked by the 2024 collapse of a canopy at the newly renovated Novi Sad railway station that killed 16 people. The tragedy, widely blamed on corruption, triggered some of Serbia's largest protests since the fall of Slobodan Milošević in 2000.

The anti-corruption movement, led by university students, snowballed from demands for a transparent investigation into the tragedy into calls for an early election.

Rally details

Crowds streamed into Belgrade's central Slavija Square from all directions, also filling several blocks of streets around the area. Waving "Students are winning" flags, chanting and blowing whistles, students and their supporters marched through Belgrade before converging on Slavija Square, the site of some of their biggest protests.

Political response

Vucic has dominated Serbian politics for over a decade, serving as either prime minister or president. Amid mounting pressure, Vucic announced the snap vote last month, setting up his biggest electoral challenge since his party took power in 2012.

Vucic, who addressed supporters at a sports hall in the capital on Thursday, has regularly accused the student movement 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," said the 56-year-old, who resigned to run for prime minister.

Many of the 250 candidates of the Student List running for the 250-seat parliament are drawn from academia or are deliberate political outsiders. The movement has a broad platform, but at its core is a pledge to fight corruption.

Serbia lacks reliable independent polling, and surveys have produced widely differing results. Days before the vote, Serbian civil society groups warned that conditions for "free and fair elections" were lacking.