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"This will be a free state": Serbia's Student List claims victory on BBC News

Nick Thorpe reports from Belgrade that the movement's doctors, actors and athletes could win between 130 and 140 of parliament's 250 seats.

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BBC News Story of October 26, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of BBC News's most watched videos since yesterday, with 156,189 views.

Serbia’s leader Aleksandar Vučić toppled from power by student-led mass protest movement | BBC News

Aleksandar Vučić has conceded defeat in Serbia's snap parliamentary elections, and the movement that beat him has no obvious leaders and almost no politicians. "It is clear that we have lost these elections," he said at his Serbian Progressive Party's headquarters in Belgrade, according to BBC News.

The winners are the Student List. It grew out of two years of protests that began after a railway station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad in 2024. Sixteen people were killed, and the disaster came to stand, for many Serbians, for corruption and negligence. The list's candidates came from across public life, including doctors, actors, academics and sports figures. Correspondent Nick Thorpe describes them as people the students considered "untainted by the exercise of power, by corruption in these last 14 years."

Reporting live from crowds outside parliament, Thorpe calls the result "a big surprise indeed." He says the movement is expected to win 130 or 140 seats in the 250-member parliament, enough for a majority. "And they will now be Serbia's next rulers," he says. The BBC also reports a record turnout, which commentators had expected to favor the students.

The lead candidate is a cardiologist, Ilija Srdanović. He told BBC Serbian that "this will be a free state." The movement's manifesto, according to the BBC, would remove officials who broke rules when cracking down on protesters, keep party loyalists from running public companies and free the public broadcaster from political control.

In the streets, people danced, chanted "victory" and set off fireworks. "Serbia is free," one student told the BBC. "It's a miracle." The report drew more than 150,000 views in its first five hours online.

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