For nearly two years, Serbian university students have driven mass anti-corruption protests.
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students → drive → protests
Now they share a broader aim: defeating the nation's powerful populist leader Aleksandar Vucic in this weekend's early parliamentary election.
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they → share → election
Following the Oct. 25 vote, the former authoritarian president is seeking a return as prime minister to extend his right-wing party's 14-year rule.
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president → follow → rule
Having previously rattled the populists during their demonstrations, Serbia's youth movement is the sole barrier in his way.
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movement → rattle → way
Tensions remain high alongside the stakes.
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Tensions → remain → stakes
Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party, or SNS, and the student-supported Students' List are thought to be running close, leaving the outcome uncertain and raising fears of potential violence.
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Party → support → violence
Having marched and cycled across Serbia, the students' final campaign rally in Belgrade on Thursday is expected to draw tens of thousands of people.
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rally → march → people
Here is a look at how the students became a key player in the election:
Serbian students say they want to change an unjust society
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they → become → society
Unlike high school students in France who are rallying for better education, Serbia's student movement started out as a struggle for justice after a train station tragedy in the country's north killed 16 people in November 2024.
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tragedy → rally → November
The students' call for accountability for the deaths, which they blamed on rampant corruption, found widespread support.
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they → blame → support
Protests spread, forcing a government collapse and rattling Vucic.
Psychology professor Aleksandar Baucal says the students' drive is rooted in the fact that “their generation grew up in a society that is deeply unjust.”
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that → spread → society
“They realized that if they gave up, they would give up on their lives,” said Baucal, an early supporter of the students who is now on their election ticket.
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who → realize → ticket
“This has made them an opponent who can’t give up.”
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who → make → ?
Two years on, the students have become a well-organized political force, resilient to government crackdowns and widely popular among Serbia’s 6.4 million voters.
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students → become → voters
The students claimed on Sunday that their meetings are being monitored and that authorities plan new detentions.
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authorities → claim → detentions
The student movement is leaderless but united
Their secret, the students say, lies in the movement's democratic ways and solidarity that is completely opposite to Vucic's populist dominance.
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that → say → dominance
“It has been important for us to dismantle the personality cult," Vukasin Djinovic, a student from the northern city of Novi Sad, told The Associated Press.
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Djinovic → dismantle → Press
The students support "democracy, tolerance and respect for everyone's opinion,” he added.
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he → support → opinion
In practice, the movement has no leader or leaders, not even a spokesperson.
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movement → have → leader
They say they are all equal, regardless of what part of Serbia they come from or what faculty they are studying at.
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they → say → faculty
All important decisions and plans are discussed and voted on in a myriad of so-called plenums, or faculty assemblies, across the country.
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decisions → discuss → country
Acting as an anonymous movement, the students have proven an elusive and slippery adversary for the veteran politician who easily outmaneuvered his opponents in the past.
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who → act → past
Vucic has pushed hard against the students with detentions, accusations of anti-state activities and alleged surveillance.
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Vucic → push → activities
But supporters such as Baucal believe all that pressure “gave the students additional strength and resilience.”
How the students came up with an election ticket and a plan
The students chose their Students' List election ticket through proposals and a vetting process that took place at all universities across the country.
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that → believe → country
Their candidates for the 250-member Parliament include a few familiar faces, along with little-known teachers, professors, experts, athletes, farmers and artists.
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candidates → include → teachers
The idea, Djinovic said, is to change a government that he said is “plagued by corruption and mafia,” and rebuild democratic institutions, including independent media, so that a free and fair election can be held in the future.
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election → say → future
The Students' List has also come up with plans for an economic and social revival.
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List → come → revival
“We are afraid but we managed to overcome that because we know what we are fighting for,” he said.
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he → manage → what
Much is uncertain ahead of Sunday's vote
Vucic has campaigned fiercely since he resigned as president last month to pursue his bid to become prime minister again.
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he → campaign → bid
He has accused his opponents of plans to steal the populists' election victory even as his ruling party controls the election authorities and the judiciary.
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party → accuse → authorities
Vucic's SNS party has been accused in the past of election irregularities, including pressuring and bribing voters and inflating voter lists — accusations it has denied.
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it → accuse → lists
International election monitors and the European Union have expressed concern about the safety and fairness of the upcoming vote.
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monitors → express → vote
Analysts fear that both sides could claim victory on election night, and that Vucic would not concede defeat if he loses.
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he → fear → defeat
“Students have shown clearly that they are the force, both as a generation and politically, that can bring about a change,” said Aleksandra Krstic, from Belgrade's Faculty of Political Sciences.
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Krstic → show → Sciences
“That is what gave people hope, that it can be different after 14 years of the Serbian Progressive Party regime.
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it → give → regime
"
But, Krstic added, “we all fear extreme violence."
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we → add → violence
The Aporia
