Putin-backed Vucic concedes Serbia election to student movement

What to know

- Aleksandar Vucic, whom Russian President Vladimir Putin had endorsed, conceded Serbia's snap parliamentary election to the Student List on Sunday, Oct. 25, saying "it is clear that we have lost these elections," Reuters reported. He spoke on the basis of a sample count. Final official results are not in. - Putin said on Oct. 1 that he hoped Vucic would be Serbia's next prime minister, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. The Associated Press reported that Vucic had been endorsed by Putin. - Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party has governed since 2012. He was prime minister from 2014 and president from 2017. AP described him as an "increasingly authoritarian" populist. The BBC reported that supporters credit him with sustained economic growth, while critics say he concentrated power and undermined democratic norms. - The Student List grew out of protests after a train station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad in November 2024, killing 16 people. Its 250 candidates, chosen by student assemblies, include professors, athletes and farmers, but no students, AP and the BBC reported. - With 75% of its sample processed, Ipsos/CeSID projected 52.4% of the vote for the Student List and 39.2% for Vucic's list, the Serbian daily Kurir reported. An earlier Ipsos/CeSID update projected 139 of 250 seats for the Student List and 104 for Vucic's list, the state news agency Tanjug reported. A majority takes 126 seats. - In the official preliminary count, the Student List led Vucic's list 47.10% to 43.54% with 4,103 of 8,392 polling stations processed, according to the Republic Electoral Commission. The count is not final. - Vucic blamed the loss on independent media and alleged interference by European countries and what he called an "American deep state," AP and the Russian state news agency TASS reported. He gave no evidence for the claim in the remarks those outlets reported.

Aleksandar Vucic, the Putin-endorsed leader who has dominated Serbian politics for more than a decade, conceded defeat on Sunday night to a movement built by university students.

"It is clear that we have lost these elections, the Student List has won," Vucic said, Reuters reported. The Guardian reported that he spoke at his party's headquarters in Belgrade. Citing a sample count, he said the winners would have "between 135 and 140 seats" and his list about 105, according to Reuters, which published the remarks at 4:43 p.m. ET. He also said, "We still do not have final results." Earlier on Sunday he had told reporters, "if we lose, we'll concede it," the Guardian reported.

Polls had closed at 8 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET). Crowds celebrated in central Belgrade afterward, the Guardian reported.

How did Putin back Vucic?

AP reported that Vucic had been endorsed by Putin. RFE/RL reported that at an Oct. 1 session of the Valdai discussion club in Russia, Putin said he hoped Vucic would be Serbia's future prime minister and that Russia valued Vucic's restrained policy. The two leaders met in Beijing in September 2025, Al Jazeera reported.

Vucic used the endorsement on the campaign trail. At a pre-election rally, he accused the students of dodging the question of sanctions on Russia and said, "You've heard what Vladimir Putin said. So you decide," the BBC reported.

Srecko Djukic, a former Serbian diplomat, told RFE/RL that Putin's backing of Vucic was "unequivocal" and that Moscow saw its policy toward Serbia as tied to Vucic personally. Djukic also said the Student List itself had a pro-Russian orientation.

Serbia is a candidate to join the European Union, but Vucic has refused to sanction Russia, saying that "85 percent of Serbians will always side with Russia, whatever happens," Al Jazeera reported. At the same time, Anthony Godfrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Serbia, told Al Jazeera that Vucic had openly provided arms to Ukraine.

Moscow also signaled it would work with any winner. On Oct. 21, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia expected Serbia's new government "to continue pursuing mutually beneficial and equal cooperation with Russia," the Bosnian Serb agency SRNA reported. RFE/RL reported that Russian state outlets RT and Sputnik also gave the Student List airtime over its opposition to sanctions. As of about 7:40 p.m. ET Sunday, NewsCubby had found no Kremlin comment on the result.

Who is Vucic?

Vucic was born in Belgrade in 1970 and was a law student by 1990, Al Jazeera reported. He began his career in the far-right Serbian Radical Party, which called for a "Greater Serbia." In July 1995, days after the Srebrenica massacre, he warned Serbia's parliament against interference by outside powers and threatened mass reprisals against Muslims if Serbs were killed, Al Jazeera reported.

In 1998, at 28, he became information minister under Slobodan Milosevic. The BBC reported that he was "responsible for implementing some of Europe's most restrictive laws on freedom of speech." He lost power when Milosevic fell in 2000.

In 2008, he co-founded the more moderate Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), renounced ultranationalism and pledged to take Serbia into the EU, the BBC and Al Jazeera reported. In 2015 he visited Srebrenica and called the killings a "monstrous crime," but he has never recognized them as genocide, Al Jazeera reported.

The SNS has governed since 2012. Vucic became prime minister in 2014 and was elected president in 2017, the BBC and Al Jazeera reported. Freedom House, a U.S.-based democracy watchdog, said he remained the dominant figure in government after moving to the presidency, despite its limited constitutional powers, creating a de facto presidential system. He resigned the presidency last month to lead his party's list and run for prime minister, AP and the Guardian reported.

What kind of leader was he?

Views of Vucic split sharply.

**What supporters say:** The BBC reported in a 2023 profile that, to supporters, he is "a pragmatic leader who overcame Serbia's deep divides and presided over sustained economic growth." Al Jazeera reported that since 2012, unemployment has fallen from 24% to single digits and wages have more than doubled. Godfrey, the former U.S. ambassador, called him "incredibly intelligent" and "very, very hardworking." Vucic told Fox News in June that Serbia's GDP had grown from about 32 billion euros to more than 100 billion euros on his watch. AP reported that admirers saw him as a capable leader who could steer Serbia through global uncertainty.

**What critics and watchdogs say:** AP described him as an "increasingly authoritarian" populist who led "with virtually absolute power" for 14 years. Freedom House rates Serbia "Partly Free," with a score of 53 out of 100 in its 2026 report, down from 56, and says the SNS "has steadily eroded political rights and civil liberties." It reported that in June 2025 Vucic called reporting by the independent channels N1 and Nova S "pure terrorism." Al Jazeera reported that his allies control most newspapers and TV stations, and the Guardian reported that the ruling party had taken over almost all broadcast channels. Before Sunday's vote, monitors raised concerns about detentions, surveillance and cyberattacks against activists, the Guardian reported.

**How he handled the big powers:** The BBC reported that Vucic courted the EU, Serbia's biggest trading partner, while staying close to Russia and signing a free-trade deal with China in 2023. Godfrey told Al Jazeera that Vucic calls Serbia's relationship with China "the friendship made of steel." Florian Bieber, a political scientist at the University of Graz, told Al Jazeera that balancing those powers "requires some level of skill." The Guardian reported that during the campaign Vucic pitched himself as the leader who could walk that tightrope.

His camp argued that the opposition had not shown it could govern. Foreign Minister Marko Djuric told Fox News that years of criticism had not convinced the public that the students had "a credible program."

Who are the students who beat him?

The movement began after a concrete canopy at the Novi Sad railway station collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024, killing 16 people. The station had been renovated as part of a Belgrade-Budapest rail project that Vucic championed, the BBC reported. Protesters blamed corruption, and the Guardian reported that evidence suggested shoddy construction, fraud and corruption. Student protests grew into a broad anti-government movement. Fox News reported that the protests peaked at nearly 350,000 people in Belgrade in March 2025.

The Student List has no formal leader. Student assemblies at university faculties chose its 250 candidates, the BBC reported. AP reported that no students were on the list. Instead its candidates are mostly little-known experts, athletes, farmers and artists, chosen in part to counter one-man rule. They include Dejan Bodiroga, a former basketball star who is president of the EuroLeague, the Guardian reported.

Ilija Srdanovic, a cardiologist and professor at the University of Novi Sad, heads the list. But the BBC reported before the vote that he is not the movement's leader and would not necessarily be its choice for prime minister.

**What they stand for:** AP and the Guardian reported that the list campaigned to rebuild the economy and restore democracy. Its slogan was "Serbia or Mafia?" Srdanovic told the BBC that it offers "the core values of civilised society." One student told the BBC the goal was a country "where the freedom of speech is ruling." Mirjana Nikolic, rector of the University of Arts in Belgrade and a candidate, told The New Union Post that the list's priorities come from Serbia's Constitution, which commits the country to "European principles and values." Its "immediate priority" would be a review of the documents behind the Novi Sad station renovation, she said.

On Russia, the program calls for "maintaining the policy of not imposing sanctions on Russia while respecting Ukraine's territorial integrity," Nikolic said.

Vucic repeatedly called the students stooges of foreign powers during the campaign, the Guardian and BBC reported. The students rejected the charge.

Who takes over now?

Ana Brnabic, the speaker of parliament, has been acting president since Sept. 28, when Vucic handed over his duties, the Serbian government reported.

The new parliament will have to elect a prime minister and government. The BBC reported before the vote that the list had no hierarchy or nominated leader. NewsCubby found no announcement Sunday of whom the Student List would propose.

Speaking for the winners on Sunday, Radomir Saicic, a chemistry professor on the list, called the result "a victory of courage over fear," the Guardian reported. "Tomorrow, the work begins," he said.

Some analysts expect less change abroad than the celebrations might suggest. "The most realistic expectation is continuity," Sinisa Vukovic of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies told Fox News, referring to Serbia's foreign policy.

What do the numbers show so far?

The figures below come from projections based on samples of polling stations, released at different times Sunday evening. They are not the official result.

- **Ipsos/CeSID:** its first projection, at about 9:43 p.m. Belgrade time (4:43 p.m. ET), gave the Student List 52% of the vote and 138 seats to 39.3% and 104 for Vucic's list, the Guardian reported. With 56% of its sample processed, the pollster projected 139 seats to 104, Tanjug reported in an update timed 10:30 p.m. Belgrade time (5:30 p.m. ET). With 75% of its sample processed, it put the Student List at 52.4% and Vucic's list at 39.2%, Kurir reported. - **CRTA**, an election monitoring group: program director Rasa Nedeljkov put the Student List at 51.47% and Vucic's list, "Aleksandar Vucic – United Serbia," at 40.42%, the Belgrade daily Danas reported at 10:02 p.m. Belgrade time (5:02 p.m. ET). He said no other list had crossed the threshold apart from minority parties. The Guardian's live blog separately reported a CRTA projection of 51.2% and 134 seats for the Student List to 40.4% and 106 seats for Vucic's list. - **Turnout:** Ipsos/CeSID estimated 67.6% by 7 p.m. local time. The Guardian reported that this was the highest since 1992. Tanjug later reported an Ipsos/CeSID estimate of 69.7% by 8 p.m., against 58.8% at the 2023 election.

The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) is publishing its official preliminary count as polling stations report. As of 12:35 a.m. Monday Belgrade time (7:35 p.m. ET), with 4,103 of 8,392 polling stations processed, the RIK's count put the Student List at 47.10% (703,472 votes) and Vucic's list at 43.54% (650,336 votes). A list led by Ivica Dacic's Socialist Party of Serbia had 2.48%. Turnout at the processed stations was 67.28%. Partial counts can shift as more stations report. As of about 7:40 p.m. ET, the RIK had not announced final results.

What did Vucic say about the loss?

AP reported that Vucic pointed to independent media and to alleged interference by unnamed European countries and an "American deep state." TASS quoted him calling the outcome a revolution carried out with support from "a number of European countries and the US deep state, the faction that opposes Donald Trump." TASS also quoted him predicting that the new majority would impose sanctions on Russia "by March or April." None of those reports included evidence for the foreign-interference claim.

Why does this matter to US readers?

Serbia sits at the center of the Western Balkans, a region where the U.S., the EU, Russia and China compete for influence. On Oct. 23, Fox News reported that Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., had introduced the bipartisan SRBIJA Act, which would make future U.S. aid depend on certification that Serbia had made "significant and sustained" efforts on judicial accountability, press freedom and alignment with the EU and NATO. "Corruption doesn't just steal public money; it steals an entire generation's future," Ivana Stradner of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Fox News.

Vucic's claim about an "American deep state," which he described as a faction opposing President Donald Trump, puts the U.S. into Serbia's domestic argument. As of about 7:40 p.m. ET, NewsCubby had found no comment on the result from the White House or the State Department.

How have others reacted?

By about 7:40 p.m. ET, top EU officials had congratulated the winners. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X, "Congratulations to the Student List on its victory in the parliamentary elections," and said the EU stood ready to support reforms on the rule of law, media freedom and the fight against corruption and "to work together to advance Serbia's future in the European Union," Reuters reported. European Council President Antonio Costa posted a similar message, the Guardian reported. EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said, "Serbia has raised its voice," according to Reuters. Alain Berset, secretary general of the Council of Europe, welcomed "former President Vucic's acceptance of the result and commitment to a peaceful democratic transition," Reuters reported.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who ousted Viktor Orban in April, said on X that he had called the list's leaders to congratulate them, the Guardian reported. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajic also welcomed the result, calling the will of the people "the foundation of every democratic change," Reuters reported.

During the day, independent monitors reported irregularities including photographed ballots and attempted vote buying, the Guardian and AP reported. Andreas von Beckerath, the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, said the EU was "deeply concerned about reported violent incidents" at a number of polling stations, the Guardian reported.

What we know

- Vucic conceded on Sunday night, based on sample projections, and said the Student List won. - Ipsos/CeSID and CRTA both project the Student List above the 126 of 250 seats needed for a majority, and it leads the official preliminary count. - Top EU officials congratulated the Student List. NewsCubby found no comment on the result from the Kremlin, the White House or the State Department. - Putin had endorsed Vucic, according to AP. The Student List presents itself as pro-European but opposes sanctions on Russia.

What we don't know yet

- The final official results and seat count from the Republic Electoral Commission. - Whom the Student List will propose as prime minister, and how quickly a government can form. - How Moscow and Washington will respond.

What happens next

International observers from the OSCE usually publish preliminary findings the day after a vote. The electoral commission will keep releasing results. NewsCubby will update this story as official figures and reactions come in.

*Credits: reporting from the Associated Press, Reuters, the Guardian, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the BBC, Al Jazeera, Freedom House, the Serbian government, the Republic Electoral Commission, TASS, Tanjug, Kurir, Danas, SRNA, Fox News and The New Union Post. NewsCubby articles are produced with AI assistance and reviewed by humans.*