Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced on Sunday that the ruling party had lost the snap parliamentary election, citing preliminary results that showed a strong lead for a student-backed protest movement.
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“Based on a sample representing different categories of voters, it is clear that we have lost this election,” Vučić told his supporters at his party’s headquarters in Belgrade.
The snap election marks the culmination of nearly two years of student-led protests, which erupted following the collapse of a roof at the Novi Sad railway station in 2024, killing 16 people. Many attributed the disaster to corruption, and it triggered some of the largest protests Serbia has seen since the fall in 2000 of Slobodan Milošević, who ruled the country with an iron fist.
Sunday’s vote saw record turnout, with Serbia recording its highest participation rate in a parliamentary election in more than three decades.
As soon as Vučić conceded defeat, celebrations spread across the capital. Passing cars honked their horns, while crowds began gathering near the election commission’s headquarters to celebrate. “I can’t describe how I feel. I finally feel as though I’m living in a free country,” student Mila Martić told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
