A nationwide student movement shook the foundations of a deeply entrenched government and on Sunday, it dealt it an unprecedented electoral blow – something opposition parties had failed to do for more than a decade.
asserted
parties → shake → decade
Until the election results came out, the Serbian student movement was largely ignored by international media.
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movement → come → media
The students were seen as naive, irrelevant, disaffected youth.
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students → see → youth
That they were underestimated by the world and by President Aleksandar Vucic was perhaps to their advantage.
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underestimated → underestimate → advantage
But Serbian students did not just rely on their opponent’s overconfidence.
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students → rely → overconfidence
For almost two years, they built and practised an alternative model of politics that soon became visible and eventually triumphed at the polls.
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that → build → polls
The hidden abode of alternative politics
Although the student protests were triggered by one particular incident – the death of 16 people in a train canopy collapse at a newly renovated station in 2024 – their anger had much deeper roots.
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anger → trigger → roots
Students and their families had been squeezed from all sides: by local elites whose corruption and mismanagement eroded the standard of living and plunged them into precarity; and by international corporations, which fed that corruption, while offering substandard jobs with little prospect of social mobility.
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which → squeeze → mobility
The protests the students started were not the first against Vucic and his government.
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students → start → Vucic
But what was different this time is that they remained independent: neither aligned with any domestic political party nor any of the four superpowers Serbia is dealing with – Russia, China, the European Union and the United States.
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Serbia → remain → superpowers
Students managed to sustain the pressure because they did not join existing politics.
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they → manage → politics
Most Serbian opposition parties are small, centralised and increasingly detached from the crises people face daily.
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people → face → crises
Associating with them would have been damaging to the movement.
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Associating → associate → movement
Instead, the students created their own alternative political scene.
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students → create → scene
Across the country, they blockaded and took over universities, bringing higher education to a standstill.
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they → blockade → standstill
They filled squares with peaceful protests and vigils.
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They → fill → protests
They set up their own structures to run their affairs at occupied buildings.
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They → set → buildings
This strong self-reliance was apparent at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad — Serbia’s largest university department, with more than 16,000 students enrolled — which I visited for the first time in March 2025.
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I → enrol → March
I was invited there to speak to students.
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I → invite → students
The faculty looked nothing like it had before.
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it → look → ?
Student guards controlled entrances with communication equipment and metal fencing.
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guards → control → equipment
LED screens in the corridors announced plenaries and alternative lectures for students.
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screens → announce → students
There were rooms stocked with food sorted by type, and medical supplies, with student nurses tending to anyone in need.
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nurses → be → need
Kitchens, reading rooms and a student-run administration could also be seen at the faculty.
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Kitchens → see → faculty
Discussions on current political and economic issues of interest to Serbia, organised by the students’ alternative education sections, often involved 300 to 400 students and lasted five or six hours, covering topics that would later enter the movement’s electoral programme.
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that → organise → programme
The more the government and its repressive apparatus attacked them, the more the people stood with them.
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people → attack → them
Introducing direct democracy
As this bond between the students and the wider population grew deeper, democratic participation expanded.
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participation → introduce → students
By March 2025, suffering more and more attacks, the students called for people to establish citizens’ assemblies akin to the student plenaries, in order to aid them in seeking justice for the 16 killed in Novi Sad.
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people → suffer → Sad
As the Serbian government continued its repressive strategy, the students realised that a change was necessary and made the first public demand for snap elections.
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change → continue → elections
The students took decisions collectively.
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students → take → decisions
They chose academics and activists whom they had invited to their occupied faculties to discuss and debate with well-known public figures.
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they → choose → figures
It was collectively decided that established politicians would not be nominated.
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politicians → decide → ?
The students made it clear they rejected being incorporated into a type of leadership-based politics that was failing all across Europe.
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that → make → Europe
Candidates were chosen after interviews with students.
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Candidates → choose → students
Last summer, I was invited to one such interview session near Novi Sad.
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I → invite → Sad
There was a large group of 300 students who questioned each candidate.
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who → be → candidate
Phones had to be left outside.
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Phones → have → ?
This was the hidden abode of a new kind of politics: decisions were made not at a party headquarters by a select few, but by a network of assemblies, local committees and informal institutions.
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decisions → make → assemblies
It was leaderless, and in that particular moment, it worked.
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it → work → moment
The challenges ahead
The Student List has already started negotiations to form the government.
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List → start → government
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
