Serbia's students built a movement beyond the established opposition

Balkans specialist Alejandro Esteso Pérez credits sustained protests, geographical reach and high turnout for the Student List's victory.

Channel: RTVE Noticias ·

SpainStory of October 27, 2026Trari Newsroom

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¿Qué explica la histórica victoria de la lista de estudiantes en las presidenciales de Serbia?

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1:07Esteso credits sustained protests, students' geographical diversity and the absence of personality-led politics with widening the movement's reach.
2:48He describes democratic institutional decline under Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party since 2012.
3:34Serbia maintains ties with both Russia and the EU; Esteso identifies high turnout as decisive in the election.
5:27The Student List operates through assemblies rather than a traditional party hierarchy, with final seat allocations still pending.
6:49Esteso describes a celebratory atmosphere in Belgrade following the result.

Students from different parts of Serbia brought something the established opposition had struggled to achieve: a movement reaching beyond familiar party loyalties. That is Alejandro Esteso Pérez's explanation for the Student List's election victory in an interview with Spain's public broadcaster RTVE Noticias.

Speaking from Belgrade, the Balkans specialist points to almost two years of sustained protests and an organizing model that avoided dependence on a single prominent leader. Students' varied hometowns helped the campaign extend its reach across the country, he says, rather than remain confined to a narrow opposition constituency.

The broadcast opens with images of the November 2024 railway-station canopy collapse in Novi Sad, which sparked the anti-corruption movement, alongside scenes of election celebrations. It reports an absolute majority for the opposition Student List and Aleksandar Vučić's acknowledgment of defeat. Although the upload's title refers to a presidential election, the broadcast itself identifies the contest as legislative.

Esteso places the result against what he describes as a well-documented decline in democratic institutions since Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party came to power in 2012. He identifies turnout of almost 70 percent as decisive in changing the outcome.

Asked about Hungary and Russia, he explains that Serbia's foreign relations are not understood domestically as an exclusive choice between Moscow and the European Union. His account emphasizes Serbia's practice of maintaining relationships with both, rather than treating the result as an automatic geopolitical realignment.

The institutional shape of the winning movement is still developing. Esteso says students have worked through assemblies and plenary meetings, not a conventional party hierarchy, and notes that final seat allocations remain pending. From Belgrade, he describes streets filled with celebration as that assembly-based movement prepares to enter parliamentary politics.

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