From the streets to the ballot box: Serbia’s students hope for election win

Student List–Students Win is the political expression of a student-led protest movement. It began after a deadly railway-station disaster and expanded as citizens, teachers, professors, and experts joined demands for major institutional change. Its importance comes from challenging the long dominance of the Serbian Progressive Party and Aleksandar Vucic without calling for his violent overthrow.

The movement built its own political structure. Students replaced the old University of Belgrade student parliament with plenums, or daily assemblies where participants vote on actions. Working groups handle strategy, donations, and security. Universities in different cities coordinate their demands. The resulting platform, officially called the Student Plan, contains 11 points.

The Student List now seeks votes rather than relying only on street demonstrations. Its lead candidate and ballot holder is cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic. The platform avoids fixed deadlines, saying these can be decided after contributors understand the full condition of the state. Its emergence creates a serious challenge to Vucic’s political grip.

The movement has grown from university activism into a nationwide protest force involving tens of thousands of people. That scale matters because Serbia’s students have become the most serious challenger to the long rule of the Serbian Progressive Party and Aleksandar Vucic. Their protests have continued across cities and attracted people far beyond campus communities.

The article identifies several groups that joined the students, including citizens, teachers, professors, and other experts. Universities in different cities coordinate their actions, helping keep demands broadly aligned. Their demonstrations also follow strict rules: they must remain peaceful, and participants must clean up debris. This organization has helped sustain large public gatherings.

The movement’s size has translated into electoral pressure. Kosta Golubovic claims that, for the first time in 16 years, the SNS is no longer Serbia’s most popular political option. The article does not provide an exact turnout figure, but it presents the protests as the country’s largest in years and a major threat to Vucic’s influence.

The immediate trigger was the collapse of a concrete canopy at the renovated Novi Sad railway station on November 1, 2024. Sixteen people were killed. The tragedy generated public outrage and turned concerns about the state’s performance into sustained student-led protests.

The collapse raised several connected questions. People questioned whether corruption had affected the project, whether construction work was safe, whether the renovation had been carried out properly, and whether government bodies had adequately supervised it. These concerns made the disaster a symbol of wider institutional failure rather than an isolated accident.

Students used the tragedy to demand a fundamental overhaul of what they described as a rotten system. Their protests expanded into demonstrations joined by tens of thousands. The movement has since challenged government accountability and entered the election through Student List–Students Win. The article presents the station collapse as the catalyst, while the wider campaign addresses broader concerns about institutions and public services.

The students designed their movement to resist disruption without becoming chaotic. They reject a single leader, so authorities cannot easily weaken the protests by pressuring, removing, or discrediting one central figure. Universities in different cities coordinate while retaining their own assemblies and working groups.

Their main decision-making tool is the plenum. These daily assemblies allow each group to vote on its course of action during hour-long sessions in university faculties. Separate working groups manage strategy, donations, and security. The movement also requires peaceful demonstrations and cleanup of debris. These rules create discipline and help participants present the protests as responsible collective action.

This structure has helped the students continue despite what activist Natasa Kandic described as the mobilization of criminal groups against protesters and citizens. The article says the demonstrations have remained entirely without violence. Their leaderless, democratic model may help them maintain trust and coordination as they move from protests into electoral politics.

The supplied article does not provide enough detail to identify what would change in courts, policing, public assets, healthcare, or government oversight if Student List–Students Win won. It says the movement has a platform called the Student Plan, divided into three sections and containing 11 points. However, the text ends before those proposals are explained.

The article does establish the movement’s broad purpose. Students want a fundamental overhaul of a system they consider rotten. Their stated concerns include the judiciary, local government, police, education, dubious privatisations, money laundering, and weakened institutions. These concerns suggest the platform addresses state accountability, but the exact measures are not included in the provided text.

Therefore, no specific election consequences can be stated reliably from this source. The only supported implication is that a victory would give the movement a mandate to pursue its 11-point Student Plan. Precise effects on courts, policing, public assets, healthcare, and oversight remain unspecified here.

Aleksandar Vucic has maintained political influence by linking the presidency to control over his party. Serbia’s president traditionally holds a largely ceremonial role, but Vucic has bolstered that position by keeping influence over the Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS. This gives him political reach beyond the formal limits of the office.

His rise followed a clear sequence. Vucic became prime minister in 2014. He was elected president in 2017. Although the presidency is described as traditionally ceremonial, his continuing influence over the SNS allowed him to remain central to government and party politics. The article identifies that party leadership connection as the key mechanism.

That influence is now being tested. Student protests have become the most serious challenge to the SNS and Vucic’s long rule. Opposition parties and rights watchdogs accuse him and the SNS of several abuses, while Vucic and his allies deny the allegations. The Student List’s election campaign could therefore weaken the political system he has built around party influence.

Corruption means using public authority or resources for private or political advantage. Institutional oversight means independent checking by bodies such as courts, regulators, auditors, journalists, legislatures, and civic groups. Oversight matters because it tests decisions, exposes wrongdoing, and creates consequences for officials or contractors who break rules.

The railway-station collapse shows why these safeguards matter. The tragedy raised questions about alleged corruption, construction safety, renovation quality, and government supervision. If officials, contractors, or inspectors are not properly checked, unsafe work can pass through approvals. The article also lists concerns about dubious privatisations, money laundering, weakened institutions, police being replaced by thugs, and the treatment of the judiciary.

The same weakness can affect elections and public services. Without credible oversight, voter bribery may go unpunished, courts may lose independence, and public money can be diverted. The source reports accusations of these problems, which Vucic and his allies deny. Stronger oversight would make decisions more transparent and institutions more accountable.