Vucic Concedes Serbia's Parliamentary Election: Student List Projected to Win 135-140 Seats Against His Camp's 105
BELGRADE — Serbia held a snap parliamentary election on Sunday, October 25, and Aleksandar Vucic, who has led the country for more than a decade, conceded defeat that night. According to Reuters, Vucic said that based on a sample it was clear his camp had lost: the student-led Student List would win between 135 and 140 of the National Assembly's 250 seats, his own camp about 105, and no other list would enter parliament.
"We still do not have final results, on the basis of a sample ... it is clear that we have lost these elections, the Student List has won, they will have between 135 and 140 seats and we will have 105, no one else has entered parliament," Vucic said.
An independent Ipsos/CeSID projection reported by The Guardian on election night put the Student List at about 52.0% of the vote and 138 seats, against about 39.3% and 104 seats for Vucic's camp; a parliamentary majority requires 126 seats. Final official results have not been released, and the Associated Press has reported that the state election commission is not expected to publish the official tally before Monday, so the seat figures remain sample-based estimates.
The snap election was called by Vucic in September after almost two years of student-led demonstrations, triggered by the deaths of 16 people when a train station canopy collapsed in the city of Novi Sad in 2024, amid protests against perceived corruption and creeping authoritarianism. The students gained widespread support to become the greatest threat to Vucic since he first became prime minister in 2014 and then president in 2017. According to Reuters, Vucic resigned as president on September 27 to run again for prime minister.
The Student List fielded 250 candidates, mostly little-known experts, athletes, farmers and artists, headed by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic, campaigning on anti-corruption and transparent public procurement; the list has said that heading it does not necessarily mean Srdanovic would become prime minister.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 塞尔维亚领导人Aleksandar Vucic（左）2026年2月访问哈萨克斯坦时抵达Astana（资料图）。图：哈萨克斯坦共和国政府新闻局，CC BY 4.0，经维基共享资源。 / Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic (left) arriving in Astana during a February 2026 visit to Kazakhstan (file photo). Photo: Press Service of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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