On a cool autumn evening, a team of Serbian student volunteers went canvassing in the housing estates of Krnjača, a Belgrade suburb.
asserted
team → go → Krnjača
They were equipped with lanyards emblazoned with the word “victory”, a stock list of questions and a mobile app that mapped visited homes and the level of support in each.
asserted
that → equip → each
The volunteers were part of a mass student movement, Student List, that has rocked Serbia with two years of constant protests.
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that → rock → protests
On Sunday, the group will represent the most serious challenge Aleksandar Vučić has faced in his 12 increasingly authoritarian years in power, by putting forward their own candidates in parliamentary elections.
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Vučić → represent → elections
They hope to emulate the defeat of Vučić’s ally, Viktor Orbán, in neighbouring Hungary six months ago, in a domino effect that could bring a democratic resurgence to central Europe.
uncertain
that → hope → Europe
Opinion polls have varied wildly, but many expert observers say a close race is quite possible, with neither side prepared to accept a loss as a legitimate result, raising the risk of post-election unrest and clashes.
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side → vary → unrest
In order to win, the students’ list of 250 candidates would have to break the mould of Serbian politics, along with Vučić’s grip on the country.
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list → win → country
He stepped down as president last month, five months before the end of his second and last term in office under the constitution, but only with the aim of extending his hold on power as prime minister at the head of his Serbian Progressive party (SNS).
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He → step → party
In the section of the suburb assigned to them, law student Zak Veličković and campaign photographer Danijela Radojković were welcomed with overwhelming support.
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Veličković → assign → support
Apart from a small handful of polite doorstep rejections, from those claiming they had no interest in politics, people seized the opportunity to air their grievances.
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people → claim → grievances
Most promised their vote and a large minority offered help: some taxi drivers with flats in the low-rise apartment blocks said they would help ferry voters to the polling stations.
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they → promise → stations
“Turnout is the key,” one said, adding: “Orbán fell with 80%” – a reference to the Hungarian elections in April.
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Orbán → say → April
Veličković began each conversation by asking what was the biggest problem in Serbian society, a query that often raised a laugh and replies such as: “How much time do you have?”
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you → begin → time
On the corruption index run by Transparency International, Serbia ranks far worse than any of its neighbours, as the most corrupt country in Europe bar the dictatorships in Belarus and Russia.
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Serbia → run → Belarus
There are frequent allegations of links between the SNS and organised crime, and the Student List’s slogan confronts that widespread perception head on, posing the question: “Serbia or Mafia?”
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slogan → be → question
The government denies all accusations and officially claims to be tackling organised crime.
uncertain
government → deny → crime
The key local issues in Krnjača were the poor repair of the road bridge linking the suburb and central Belgrade, and the sewage system, which repeatedly fails in heavy rain, despite a personal promise by Vučić, who residents said had visited a few years earlier, to fix the problem.
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residents → link → problem
The economy has been growing in recent years, but there is a widespread opinion that the fruits are not being fairly distributed.
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fruits → grow → years
Porsche and Land Rover car showrooms have been established in Krnjača but public spaces look neglected.
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spaces → establish → Krnjača
It was a major infrastructure failure that sparked the student protests – the collapse of a concrete canopy in Novi Sad railway station on 1 November 2024, killing 16 people.
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that → spark → people
Evidence pointed to botched modifications made during refurbishment work, but so far there has been no official finding on the cause, and no official has been held accountable.
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official → point → cause
When Belgrade students blocked a road in a vigil for the victims three weeks after the disaster, they were attacked by a SNS mob and the protest movement went nationwide.
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movement → block → mob
The students initially distanced themselves from opposition parties and avoided any kind of hierarchy or conventional leadership structure.
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students → distance → hierarchy
The SNS and state-run media rule in part through smearing opponents and the student’s collective approach offered fewer targets.
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approach → smear → targets
Vučić rose to prominence in the 1990s as a radical nationalist, who supported the policies of Serbian expansion and ethnic cleansing led by Slobodan Milošević, who died of a heart attack in detention in The Hague during his trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
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who → rise → Croatia
He served as Milošević’s information minister throughout the Kosovo conflict.
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He → serve → conflict
As president, Vučić has not emulated his predecessor’s militarism, but he has maintained his nationalist playbook in domestic politics, dismissing the opposition as stooges of unspecified foreign powers.
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he → emulate → powers
So far those well-worn tactics have proved ineffective against the students.
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tactics → wear → students
A survey published in July by a Serbian pro-democracy group, the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA) and Stanford University showed significantly more support for the students (45%) than for the SNS (36%), but that was well before Vučić announced his resignation on 27 September and his election machine went into top gear.
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machine → publish → gear
Other, more recent domestic polls show the SNS in the lead, though the pollsters in question are seen by the opposition as pro-government.
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pollsters → show → -
Vučić himself shows signs he is taking the political threat seriously enough to throw himself into the campaign, making 129 live television appearances in August, more than four times the previous month’s total.
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he → show → total
“Serbia has been an electoral autocracy and in electoral autocracies only ruling political parties can win,” Raša Nedeljkov, CRTA’s programme director, said.
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Nedeljkov → rule → autocracies
But he added that the status quo was now in jeopardy.
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quo → add → jeopardy
“What we are seeing in the past days, weeks, months, is that strength; the homogeneous government that Vučić used to have is no longer there.
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Vučić → see → that
He is faced with a completely unorthodox political actor and the toolbox that he has improved over the years since he came to power is no longer effective.
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he → face → power
Unable to crush the students by force, division or denigration, Vučić gambled, announcing his resignation as president on 28 September and calling snap elections, in the apparent hope of catching the students off guard, but they responded by improvising a democratic experiment.
asserted
they → crush → experiment
The 250 candidates were mostly nominated by university faculties (there are more than 160 doctorates among them) with a sprinkling of farmers and other professions, and each candidate was subject to approval by plenary sessions of the student protests.
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candidate → nominate → protests
The policy platform has also been decided by plenum, with the result that divisive issues, especially foreign policy, have been played down: the question of future EU membership has been left to a referendum and Kosovo is claimed as an integral part of Serbia.
asserted
Kosovo → decide → Serbia
One of the chosen candidates, Milica Jovanović, an assistant professor at the University of Belgrade, argued the List’s lack of political experience was not necessarily a drawback.
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lack → choose → experience
“We are political amateurs, but we are experts,” Jovanović said.
asserted
Jovanović → say → ?
…and 30 more, not listed.
The Aporia
