Domenica la Serbia andrà al voto anticipato: può finire l’era targata Vucic (e quindi le preoccupazioni europee sul feeling con Mosca e Pechino) oppure la piazza degli studenti può influire sul nuovo corso, prendendo il potere. Ma attenzione alle infiltrazioni in entrambi gli schieramenti, dal momento che i collettivi studenteschi non sono immuni da episodi di guerra ibrida, sulla falsariga dei maranza: convocati e indottrinati sui social. Quasi sei milioni e mezzo gli elettori chiamati alle urne in ottomila seggi, compresi quelli per gli elettori residenti in Kosovo e in Bosnia Erzegovina, tutt’altro
Al voto
Il presidente uscente, Aleksandar Vucic, guida la lista Serbia unita, seguita dalla lista del Partito socialista serbo (Sps) di Ivica Dacic e da quella studentesca Gli studenti vincono. Gli ultimi sondaggi condotti dall’agenzia Ipsos danno Vucic al 47,4% dei consensi, contro il 40 della Lista studentesca, prevedendo con un’affluenza del 64,7%.
La Lista Studentesca nasce dopo l’incidente di Novi Sad, che ha innescato un movimento di protesta contro il regime di Vucic, accusandolo di corruzione. Ieri decine di persone hanno affollato l’ultimo comizio nel Palazzetto dello Sport a chiusura di una campagna elettorale che essenzialmente è bipolare. L’ex presidente si dipinge come l’uomo della continuità, che è il passaggio maggiormente contestato dagli studenti, pront invece a chiedere totale discontinuità.
A sfidare Vucic ci sarà il professore di medicina Ilija Srdanovic che dal novembre 2024, data dell’incidente ferroviario in cui persero la vita 16 persone, ha impostato un certo tipo di impegno politico. Da quel giorno ha costruito un movimento che si è trasformato in partito. È stato anche accusato di far parte di un disegno esterno per destabilizzare il Paese e sostituire Vucic, ma sul punto si è registrata la presa di distanza dell’ex presidente del Montenegro Milo Djukanovic che ha escluso tale scenario e ha contrastato con veemenza le voci di una suo appoggio alla Lista studentesca.
La geopolitica, oltre le liste
Ma non c’è solo l’urna elettorale in quanto tale al centro della disputa di domenica, bensì anche l’aspetto geopolitico: il Paese balcanico è in bilico tra l’ingresso in Ue da un lato e le pressioni di Cina e Russia dall’altro, passando per le sanzioni americane che, ad esempio, hanno spinto la Serbia a cercare un nuovo proprietario per la sua compagnia petrolifera controllata da Gazprom. Nell’ultimo periodo Belgrado ha stretto ancora maggiori relazioni con Pechino. Il partenariato tra Vucic e Xi è considerato “di ferro”, caratterizzato da legami politici, economici e militari che, in concomitanza con l’ascesa di Vucic, si sono ulteriormente cementati. Durante l’incontro dello scorso maggio, i due leader hanno deciso di promuovere congiuntamente quattro iniziative globali, otre ad aver concluso una serie di accordi di cooperazione pluriennale.
Anche la russa Rosatom potrebbe fare i conti con l’ostracismo serbo e sganciarsi dal paese balcanico, dal momento che il suo progetto di costruire una centrale nucleare su larga scala sarebbe in contrasto con il processo di adesione all’Ue. Nel paese intanto montano le preoccupazioni di tipo occupazionale, dopo che la fabbrica tessile turca Kaizen di Smederevo ha avviato la liquidazione, con il rischio che 350 lavoratori restino a casa. Un altro elemento che potrebbe influire sugli umori elettorali, accentuando il voto di protesta.
On his last morning as a professor, Vladimir Mihić taught both an ordinary and quite unique class.
It was early June, the final day of the academic year at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, Serbia's second biggest city, and Mihić had recently celebrated his 24th year in its classrooms.
The day before, the University Senate had voted — in a secret ballot he and his lawyers say was unlawful — not to reappoint him.
A student asked him to give one more lecture, in public, in front of the Rectorate.
Hundreds attended. There were tears, hugs and gifts.
But it was the quiet morning class with his students, Mihić says, that nearly broke him.
“If you went to the same local tavern for 24 years and it closed down, that would be hard,” he says. “Now imagine walking into a faculty with thousands of students you have taught behind you, and someone tells you: ‘You can't do this anymore’.”
Mihić is one of hundreds of Serbian citizens who have paid for supporting the country's student-led protest movement with their livelihoods.
The movement started on November 1, 2024, when the concrete canopy of the recently renovated railway station in Novi Sad collapsed, killing 16 people — a disaster protesters blamed on corruption, and which ignited the largest demonstrations in Serbia's history.
Nearly two years on, the movement has firmly reshaped Serbian politics. Prime Minister Miloš Vučević resigned all the way back in January 2025. After originally just reshuffling the government, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić called for snap parliamentary elections — the protesters’ main demand for more than a year at this point — which are finally taking place on Sunday, October 25.
A month before the election, on September 27, Vučić stepped down from the presidency to lead his Serbian Progressive Party’s election campaign and run for prime minister, a job he held between 2014 and 2017. Vučić, who has been President since 2017, resigned eight months before his term was due to end in May 2027. He would have been barred from running for a third term, while no such Constitutional barrier exists for prime ministerial terms. Critics argue Vučić, by looking to remain in power, is behaving in the manner of other Eastern European strongmen.
But, for the first time in his reign, Vučić’s grip on power might slip. His main rival is the so-called Student List, a leaderless movement born out of the protests, and the polls constantly disagree on whether it or Vučić is ahead in the race.
Opposition to Vučić has not been confined to just students, however – and nor has the crackdown against it.
In the wake of the student protests, supportive teachers, professors, civil servants, doctors and workers at state-owned companies have been dismissed, demoted, transferred or pushed out. Officially, trade union and civil society groups say, the reasons for dismissal are almost never stated to be support for the students.
But more than 100 school employees alone lost their jobs or had their contracts not renewed in the 2024/2025 school year, according to the Independent Trade Union of Education Workers. The number now far exceeds that, says Civic Initiatives, a prominent local civil rights organization.
Serbia's Commissioner for Protection of Equality keeps no separate tally for “political discrimination,” but on the two grounds that fit — union or political membership, and political convictions — complaints more than doubled in a year, from 31 and 25 in 2024 to 70 and 76 in 2025.
These complaints about discrimination rarely yield redress: of eight formal recommendations made in last year's 85 employment-related cases, only two employers complied, the office said in an email response to Coda’s questions.
Dismissals are only one of the tools of repression the government has used. Since the start of 2026, at least 14 students, activists and opposition politicians have been targeted with advanced spyware, says digital rights group SHARE Foundation. And some of that spyware was installed while they were in police custody, says Amnesty International. Additionally, Serbia recorded 209 press freedom violations in 2025, compared to 84 in the year before. Protesters have been charged with attacking the constitutional order, civil society groups have been branded foreign mercenaries, and university teachers have had their pay cut over the blockades.
Ana Brnabić, currently the acting president of Serbia, was leader of the National Assembly at the time of the student protests and claimed that state institutions had no information that spyware was used against students. Vučić, for his part, has claimed, without evidence, that the Student List is being financed by foreign agents, its political ascent part of a plot to undermine Serbia.
Student List — whose lead candidate (not quite the same thing, the group insists, as a figurehead or party leader) is cardiologist Ilija Srdanović – claims to represent voters fatigued by traditional politics and politicians. It is a posture acknowledged by several opposition parties which have chosen to sit out the elections and endorse Student List instead.
On Sunday, as in so many recent elections around the world, a deeply divided electorate will go to the polls, with watchdogs already warning about intimidation and alleging surveillance and possible electoral manipulation.
Professors on the front lines
But back to June, and Vladimir Mihić’s last day as a professor in Novi Sad. The purge at the Faculty of Philosophy was already underway before Mihić became a national topic.
The first to go was Jelena Kleut, a media studies professor and one of the most visible academic supporters of the protests: in January 2026, the University Senate refused, by secret ballot, to promote her to full professor, thus ending her employment even though expert bodies had approved her promotion and more than 1,200 professors signed a letter of support.
“Sadly, we have indication that this is just the beginning,” Kleut warned, referring to a colleague whose reappointment was also in question.
That colleague was Mihić.
The social psychologist, a tall man with a few grey hairs in his beard and a calm voice, had been, like Kleut, an active supporter of the student protests.
“I could not watch it on television while just sitting around,” he says.
On paper, his reappointment was beyond dispute, his file reviewed by a committee that included two of the most cited psychologists in the world.
"It was not just that my file was not disputable,” Mihić says, “it exceeded the standards several times over.”
What his unimpeachable file could not survive, though, was an objection lodged twice by Patrik Drid, the dean of the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education and a vocal opponent of the protests.
Drid claims his complaint concerned what he described as Mihić's active political organizing. The chief example of which, Drid said, was a social media call for students to gather in front of Drid's own faculty, “blocking access to those who wished to work and study.” Mihić maintains he organized nothing of the kind, and that Drid’s objections were personal.
On June 4, the University Senate voted, again in secret, which Mihić said the university’s own legal department warned was against the rules. Eight members voted for his reappointment, four against and six abstained. Under the current rules, the abstentions counted against him.
Trade unions from ten faculties called the outcome a brutal attack on university autonomy, but no explanation was given for why Mihić had lost his job.
He appealed, but the expanded Senate confirmed its decision. Now he plans to take his case to the Administrative Court, a legal battle he says could take years.
Filip Stevanovic/Anadolu via Getty Images
Fired for standing still
The unjust dismissals extended beyond university campuses.
Biljana Hrnčić spent 21 years working for the government of Vojvodina, Serbia's northern autonomous province, most recently as head of its press department. She says she had never once faced a disciplinary measure.
That changed after the protests.
Every Friday at exactly 11:52 a.m., the exact time the roof caved in at the Novi Sad station in 2024, Serbians would leave their desks and head out to the streets to honor the dead in silence. Managers walked the halls, watching.
“They went around the offices to see who took part and who didn’t,” Hrnčić said. “At one point they were so malicious that they simply locked people out of the building.”
For Hrnčić, joining in the protests was unavoidable. Both her children are students. “My children are in the streets,” she said. “It is more than natural that I would walk out onto that same street.”
In September 2025, with street demonstrations still ongoing, Hrnčić and six colleagues were moved into a new department at work. Two months later, the government abolished the department and its entire staff became “unassigned.”
The provincial government of Vojvodina did not respond to Coda’s questions for this story.
“It is a horrifying feeling,” says Hrnčić, who still looks harrowed by her ordeal. “20 years of daily work, never a single disciplinary problem, and you find yourself on the street asking what just happened.”
She and her colleagues are living off their severance pay and their savings while they wait for their cases to be heard in the Administrative Court.
For every few hundred dismissals, one court victory
Many of those dismissed have taken their case to Administrative Court, but even winning there guarantees little.
Dragoslav Ljubičić was chief steward of the Nezavisnost union at the Serbian state’s largest thermal power plant. Five years short of retirement, he was a marked man even before the student protests as a rare insider willing, in his words, to call out the mismanagement of the utility.
When the roof fell, he joined the protests immediately, holding 16-minute silences at the plant — one minute for each victim — and organized the first joint rally of students and workers in front of the state-owned electricity company EPS’s Belgrade headquarters.
In January 2025, he received a formal warning citing his Facebook posts. On February 12, managers tried to hand him a dismissal letter at work. He refused to sign it. Six days later, he signed and then sued.
EPS has publicly denied he was dismissed over the protests or his union activity. It said Ljubičić broke its code of conduct, without specifying how. EPS did not respond to questions for this story.
A judge ordered EPS to reinstate Ljubičić until his case could be heard, a decision it could not appeal. But, he said, “they did not give me back my job. They gave me a fixed-term contract and a post that did not match my qualifications at nearly half my previous pay.”
For continuing to complain about his treatment, EPS transferred him to a job that included an exhausting commute from his home.
Ljubičić’s lawyer, Ivan Ninić, who represents a string of dismissed workers, says this is the EPS playbook. Every ruling against the company is automatically appealed, at the expense of the public budget. “We took you back because the law says so,” Ninić said, describing EPS’s attitude. “Now we will make your life hell until you quit on your own.”
Serbian law, he says, is largely on the side of workers; the problem, though, is that the process takes years.
Still, Ljubičić has little patience for the slogan his supporters chant.
“The message ‘Justice for Ljubičić’ misses the point,” he says. “The real message is: stop the dismissals. Mine was the first. And then there came a wave of dismissals across Serbia, most of which the public never heard about.”
Despite the professional and financial hardship, neither Ljubičić, Mihić or Hrnčić expressed any regret. “There has not been a fraction of a second in which I have thought, ‘why did I need to do this.’I could never forgive myself if I hadn't done what I did,” says Mihić.
On Sunday, Serbians will have a long-awaited chance to exorcise their feelings of injustice. The answer to the question of whether it will be enough for a student movement to unseat the populist, autocratic Vučić will reverberate around an embattled Europe.
Serbia is approaching a decisive parliamentary election on Sunday, 25th October, with former President Aleksandar Vučić facing an unprecedented challenge from a student-led political movement that emerged from nationwide anti-corruption protests.
The election comes amid growing allegations of political intimidation, surveillance and restrictions on independent journalism. International observers have expressed concern about the conditions under which the campaign is taking place, while opinion polls suggest that the opposition Student List could challenge Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
Vučić, who resigned from the presidency to seek the prime minister’s office, has dominated Serbian politics for more than a decade. His attempt to retain power through a different constitutional position comes at a time when Serbia’s relationship with the European Union has deteriorated over judicial independence, media freedom and its continuing ties with Russia.
Student protests become an electoral challenge
The opposition movement developed following the collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad in November 2024, which killed 16 people.
The disaster triggered demonstrations demanding accountability for alleged corruption, failures in public procurement and inadequate construction oversight. What began as a student protest subsequently developed into a nationwide political movement.
As EU Today previously reported, the demonstrations exposed mounting dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of public institutions and corruption allegations.
The Student List, formally registered for Sunday’s election, has brought together academics, professionals and activists who argue that Serbia requires fundamental changes to public administration and political accountability.
Unlike conventional opposition parties, the movement has developed without a single dominant political leader. Its organisers have sought to mobilise voters who previously abstained from elections, including younger citizens dissatisfied with the established political parties.
The movement is fielding 250 candidates and has emerged as the principal electoral challenger to the SNS.
Allegations of intimidation and surveillance
The closing stages of the campaign have been overshadowed by allegations involving Serbian police, intelligence services and political supporters.
A Reuters investigation published on 22nd October documented accounts from activists and journalists describing intimidation, physical attacks and alleged misuse of surveillance technology.
The investigation cited the SHARE Foundation, a Serbian digital rights organisation, which reported that at least 14 individuals had been targeted with advanced spyware.
Independent cybersecurity researchers have also examined alleged attempts to compromise the devices of political activists and opposition figures.
Serbian authorities have denied accusations of systematic political repression and rejected allegations that state agencies conducted unlawful surveillance.
Concerns about media freedom have nevertheless intensified. Reporters Without Borders ranked Serbia 104th among 180 countries in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, reflecting a deterioration in the environment for independent journalism.
The ruling party maintains that it remains committed to democratic institutions and Serbia’s European integration.
Its mission includes 14 core experts and 30 long-term observers, with additional short-term observers requested for election day.
A delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is also observing the election alongside representatives of the European Parliament and other international institutions.
Earlier this month, the Council of Europe’s pre-electoral delegation described the campaign environment as highly polarised and called for electoral rights to be respected.
The findings of international observers will become particularly important if the result is close or either side disputes the count.
Preliminary assessments are expected on 26th October.
Consequences for Serbia’s European ambitions
The election could influence Serbia’s accession negotiations with the European Union, which have made limited progress despite Belgrade’s formal commitment to membership.
Brussels has repeatedly raised concerns about judicial independence, the treatment of journalists, corruption and Serbia’s alignment with European foreign policy.
As EU Today examined in July, the failure to advance accession negotiations reflects disagreements extending beyond individual judicial reforms.
Serbia has maintained close economic and political relationships with Russia and China while continuing to seek access to European markets and investment.
A victory for the Student List could create an opportunity to reconsider the country’s approach to EU integration, although its candidates would still face the difficulties of governing a politically divided country.
A victory for Vučić would preserve much of Serbia’s existing political leadership, but the scale of the opposition challenge suggests that domestic pressure for institutional reform would continue.
Much will depend on turnout, the distribution of parliamentary seats and whether the results are accepted as legitimate.
For Brussels, Sunday’s election will be an immediate test of its enlargement policy in the Western Balkans and its ability to reconcile strategic interests with the democratic requirements attached to EU membership.
After 14 years dominating Serbian politics, Aleksandar Vucic faces the biggest challenge to his rule in parliamentary elections on October 25 from an opposition movement that has sprung from mass student protests. But there’s growing concern about whether voting will be fair.
In today’s newsletter: Born from the fury surrounding the deadly Novi Sad station collapse, Serbia’s Student List has taken its protests all the way to the elections in an unprecedented grassroots campaign
Good morning. As waves of youth-led protests swell across Europe, prompted by the cost of living, unaffordable housing and education standards, in Serbia the younger generation is taking on the apparatus of the state itself.
In tight-run parliamentary elections this Sunday, the country’s most consequential political movement in decades, Student List, is challenging former Slobodan Milošević henchman Aleksandar Vučić and his 12-year domination of Serbian politics.
UK news | Every Briton is being urged to stock up to nine litres of bottled water and three days’ worth of food in new government guidance designed to ensure that households can survive a weather, cyber or other serious emergency.
Ukraine | Russia has carried out a massive “demonstrative” attack on Ukraine, bombarding Kyiv with ballistic missiles just hours after Vladimir Putin said he had agreed to resume trilateral negotiations.
UK politics | Nigel Farage’s newest billionaire donor was in business with a powerful Iranian religious foundation under the authority of the country’s supreme leader.
Europe news | Emmanuel Macron has said “illegitimate” demonstrations will be banned over the coming days as France seeks to get a grip on civil unrest after some of its worst street violence in years.
Energy | Great Britain is expected to pay some of the highest energy costs in Europe this winter as its reliance on imports to ensure a steady supply is forecast to deepen.
In today’s newsletter: Born from the fury surrounding the deadly Novi Sad station collapse, Serbia’s Student List has taken its protests all the way to the elections in an unprecedented grassroots campaign
Good morning. As waves of youth-led protests swell across Europe, prompted by the cost of living, unaffordable housing and education standards, in Serbia the younger generation is taking on the apparatus of the state itself.
In tight-run parliamentary elections this Sunday, the country’s most consequential political movement in decades, Student List, is challenging former Slobodan Milošević henchman Aleksandar Vučić and his 12-year domination of Serbian politics.
UK news | Every Briton is being urged to stock up to nine litres of bottled water and three days’ worth of food in new government guidance designed to ensure that households can survive a weather, cyber or other serious emergency.
Ukraine | Russia has carried out a massive “demonstrative” attack on Ukraine, bombarding Kyiv with ballistic missiles just hours after Vladimir Putin said he had agreed to resume trilateral negotiations.
UK politics | Nigel Farage’s newest billionaire donor was in business with a powerful Iranian religious foundation under the authority of the country’s supreme leader.
Europe news | Emmanuel Macron has said “illegitimate” demonstrations will be banned over the coming days as France seeks to get a grip on civil unrest after some of its worst street violence in years.
Energy | Great Britain is expected to pay some of the highest energy costs in Europe this winter as its reliance on imports to ensure a steady supply is forecast to deepen.
About 150,000 supporters of Serbia’s opposition student movement rallied in central Belgrade on Thursday, seeking to oust the party of veteran leader Aleksandar Vucic in crunch parliamentary elections this weekend.
The Student List, a leaderless movement of student-backed candidates, wants to end more than 14 years of rule by Vucic’s rightwing populist Serbian Progressive party (SNS) in Sunday’s vote.
About 150,000 supporters of Serbia’s opposition student movement rallied in central Belgrade on Thursday, seeking to oust the party of veteran leader Aleksandar Vucic in crunch parliamentary elections this weekend.
The Student List, a leaderless movement of student-backed candidates, wants to end more than 14 years of rule by Vucic’s rightwing populist Serbian Progressive party (SNS) in Sunday’s vote.
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