Student-Led Movement Launches Election Challenge to Serbian Government

Hundreds gathered in Serbia’s second city Novi Sad on Thursday evening for the first pre-election rally held by the student opposition movement ahead of early parliamentary elections scheduled for October 25. Their electoral slate – called Student List – Students are Winning – will include 250 candidates chosen by students involved in the long-running protest movement triggered by the November 2024 Novi Sad railway station disaster. The student movement has become the strongest opposition force in Serbia, and the decision to participate in the elections represents its first direct entry into electoral politics. It hopes to defeat the Serbian Progressive Party led by Aleksandar Vucic, which has been in power since 2012. Supporters of the Student List at the gathering in Novi Sad, September 10, 2026. Photo: Marija Bulic “We’re starting from Novi Sad, because that’s where it all started,” student Ana-Marija Radosavljevic told BIRN at the rally. Radosavljevic said the coming weeks will be dedicated to collecting signatures of support for the list, presenting its electoral programme, and holding public forums across Serbia ahead of the October 25 parliamentary polls. “An intense 45 days of election preparation await us,” she added. Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Novi Sad University, Ilija Srdanovic, candidate for the Student List, at the gathering in Novi Sad. Photo: Marija Bulic Addressing the rally, student Vukasin Djinovic said people have been seeking justice for the victims for almost two years since the accident in Novi Sad. “The only way to fight for justice is to fight for it in the elections. We cannot fail to look back on the hundreds of days we’ve gone through together, on the thousands of kilometres we’ve walked [on protest marches], on the hope we restored in one another,” Djinovic said. “Behind us are hugs, tears, difficult but emotional moments. There is nothing they haven’t tried to deter us from this fight. They intimidated us, spied on us, arrested and beat us, but we did not give up,” he added. Supporters of the Student List at the gathering in Novi Sad. Photo: Marija Bulic The Student List has still not officially submitted the signatures required for its participation in the upcoming elections so the gathering in Novi Sad was not formally the beginning of its election campaign. But the rally was addressed by the its first-announced candidates – several of them academics from universities around the country. They included actor Tihomir Stanic; Nemanja Djuric of the Judicial Workers’ Union; a cardiologist and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Novi Sad University, Ilija Srdanovic; a professor at the Faculty of Education in the city of Sombor; Ljubica Oparnica, sociologist and professor at the Faculty of Philosophy at Belgrade University; Jovo Bakic, professor at the Faculty of Chemistry at Belgrade University, Radomir Sicic; and a political scientist from the city of Novi Pazar, Adem Mavric. Actor Tihomir Stanic, Student List candidate for the upcoming elections, at the gathering in Novi Sad. Photo: Marija Bulic The prospective candidates highlighted key campaign themes including institutional accountability, the fight against corruption and clientelism, the rule of law and restoring trust in institutions, as well as education, healthcare and environmental protection. Srdanovic spoke about the tragedy at the Novi Sad station, saying that state institutions did not provide the answers demanded of them. Djuric said that a time of accountability should follow the elections, and that no one should be above the law. A banner with the slogan “The students are winning” at the gathering in Novi Sad. Photo: Marija Bulic Saicic claimed that Serbia is “occupied from within” by a corrupt government that “is leading the entire country deeper into ruin”. During the rally, participants chanted “Pobeda” (“Victory”) and “Pumpaj” (“Pump it up”), slogans popularised during the student protests. The rally ended with the playing of the song “Boze Pravde” (“God of Justice”).