Serbia's Snap Election: President Aleksandar Vucic Faces the Student Revolt

Ilija Srdanovic, lead candidate and ballot holder for Serbia's 'Student List', greets people during a rally in Kragujevac, Serbia, on September 26, 2026. For weeks on end, the streets of Serbia were teeming with young people rallying against the government. At the height of the protests in March 2025, more than 100,000 took to the streets. The student movement had called for early elections for nearly two years, and President Aleksandar Vucic, who resigned on Sunday, finally heeded their call earlier this month. He announced snap parliamentary elections for October 25.

With the elections originally not due until December 2027, the early vote is seen as an attempt by governing populists to cling to power despite widespread discontent. Vucic is vying for the prime minister’s post, a role he has held before, appearing to yield to protesters’ demands not out of goodwill but in the hopes of ushering in a result that keeps him in office, analysts say. But experts warn that elections will hardly solve the underlying political tensions gripping the country, triggered after 16 people were killed in 2024 when a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station. Student protesters blamed the disaster on government negligence and alleged corruption.

The move is essentially about reducing political risk, Viktor Stamenkovic, a researcher at Belgrade’s Institute for Political Studies, told Al Jazeera. Given the circumstances, the ruling camp is choosing the electoral sequence it considers least dangerous, he said, referring to Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Vucic could stall no more, as both the presidential and parliamentary vote would have had to be held next year. Vucic has, for some time, been aware that further delay is unlikely to work in his favour, Stamenkovic noted.

Vucic’s presidential term expires before the mandate of the current parliament, and Serbia’s recent political history explains the order of the elections with the parliamentary vote coming before the presidential one. Presidential elections can fundamentally alter the parliamentary dynamics that follow, which is how Vucic’s party originally came to power. Because Vucic cannot run for a third term under Serbia’s constitution, and no other SNS figure matches his popularity, he must find a way of transferring his political strength from the presidency into the parliamentary arena.

For Milica Vojinovic, an investigative reporter at the Serbian outlet KRIK, the governing party's goal is to stay in power at any cost to continue their corruption projects. She cited irregularities in past elections, such as vote buying by the SNS, and feared an escalation of these tactics now that the student movement threatens to win the election. Since 2024, the governing party has lost its sense of political legitimacy, according to Stamenkovic, with polls showing that a majority of citizens believe Serbia is heading in the wrong direction.

The youth movement recently submitted their election list to state election authorities after a jubilant march through the capital of Belgrade. Polls show that this vote could bring representatives of the student movement into parliament and state institutions, improving the legitimacy of the parliament, according to the Serbia-based Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA). However, Vojinovic predicted that if Vucic’s party holds power, severe repressive measures could follow against critics, alongside potential foreign agent laws.

Meanwhile, Serbia remains distant from European Union membership, though it is not a top priority for Vucic, who focuses more on avoiding pressure from Brussels. Vucic cooperates with the EU on certain issues while the bloc overlooks his increasingly authoritarian rule, and tensions persist regarding Serbia's ties with Russia. A public opinion poll by CRTA and Stanford University’s Democracy Action Lab showed that among SNS voters, 15 percent wanted closer ties with the EU while 60 percent favored relations with Russia, setting the stage for a highly contentious election day.