BELGRADE — Serbia votes on Sunday in a snap parliamentary election that pits the country’s long-time populist leader Aleksandar Vučić against a mass student movement born of a disaster two years ago, in a race opinion polls predict will be tight, according to Reuters and Al Jazeera.
Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. local time (1900 GMT), with the first indications of the result expected about two hours later. An Ipsos poll published on Thursday gave Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) 47 percent against the students’ list at 40 percent, though other polls have put the students ahead. About 150,000 supporters of the student movement rallied in central Belgrade on Thursday in the movement’s final show of strength before the vote.
Two years of protest come to a vote
The election is the culmination of almost two years of student-led demonstrations against perceived corruption and creeping authoritarianism, triggered by the deaths of 16 people when a train station canopy collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad in 2024. The protests grew into the largest movement Serbia has seen since the fall of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, with students demanding accountability and, eventually, new elections. Rights groups and activists say repression worsened as the protests grew, according to Al Jazeera; Vučić and his party have repeatedly denied accusations of repression, corruption and spying on opponents, and he has claimed the students are funded by foreign agents in Croatia and Montenegro — a charge the students deny.
Vučić, who has held power first as prime minister and then as president for more than a decade, called the snap election in September and resigned the presidency in order to run again for prime minister. Domestically he has pledged higher pensions and public-sector salaries, investment in state healthcare and subsidies for young couples. Abroad, he has balanced closer ties with China, a major investor, and Russia, Serbia’s traditional ally and main supplier of natural gas, while leaving the door open to joining the European Union. Many voters credit him with pulling Serbia out of economic obscurity and delivering highways, railways, schools and hospitals.
Why it matters beyond Serbia
A student victory would be a profound political shift in the Balkan country of some six million people, reminiscent of the defeat of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán in April, and could offer a blueprint for student movements elsewhere in Europe that have taken to the streets in recent weeks over education standards and a lack of prospects, according to Reuters. A Vučić victory, by contrast, would confirm that an incumbent with control of state resources and most media can outlast even a very large protest movement once the contest moves to the ballot box.
What happens next
First indications are expected within hours of polls closing on Sunday night. Both sides have set expectations for a close count, and the credibility of the tally — in a country where election observers have raised concerns in previous cycles — will shape whether the result settles the two-year confrontation or extends it into the streets. Either way, Sunday’s vote will decide whether Serbia’s protest generation converts its numbers in the square into power in parliament.
Source: Reuters, October 25, 2026 — Serbia votes as students seek to unseat Vučić in snap election; Al Jazeera, October 25, 2026 — Serbia votes in election pitting longtime leader against student movement.
