2.2 million votes. A significant number when you consider that 6.45 million citizens were called to the polls. This is the result obtained by the Students' List in the Serbian elections on 25 October. We are talking about 52 per cent of the total number of voters. First projections add that the students will hold between 135 and 140 seats out of the 250 available, while the coalition of outgoing president Aleksandar Vučić, who has been in office for 14 years, is expected to fall short at 105.

The birth of the student movement

On 1 November 2024 the concrete canopy of the main railway station in Novi Sad, a city in the north of the country and second in population only to Belgrade, collapses. The collapse is far from minor: sixteen people die and one person is left seriously injured. The station, built in 1964, had been renovated between 2021 and mid-2024 with the support of a consortium of Chinese state-owned companies, as part of the Belgrade-Budapest high-speed railway project. In the eyes of Serbs, the collapse becomes a symbol of institutional corruption and negligence. It is then that protests erupt, first in Novi Sad, then across the rest of the country.

Meanwhile, a shared sense of feeling grows within university plenums. This is how students begin to mobilise, occupying universities, organising assemblies and staging demonstrations and marches throughout the country. The undisputed strength of the movement is its cross-cutting appeal. Within a short time, it channels the anti-government sentiment ignited by the canopy collapse and embraces diverse sections of the population. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, professionals, artists and athletes find themselves part of a structured political movement that takes the name Studentska lista — the Students' List — which comes to include two hundred and fifty candidates.

Since 2024, the movement has chosen a strategy to avoid censorship by President Vučić. De-personalisation is one example. The movement remains leaderless, and therefore without a target to whom responsibility or blame can be assigned. Although one name does stand out: that of Ilija Srdanović, a cardiologist and university professor in Novi Sad, who heads the movement's list. This does not mean, however, that he will be the one to lead the future government.

What are the students' objectives

The programme, presented as the "students' plan" at a series of rallies across the country, is structured around eleven points. Among the major themes addressed is certainly the fight against corruption and the aim of restoring transparency. The concrete objectives translate into judicial independence, the confiscation of illegally acquired assets, the depoliticisation of the public sector, transparency in public procurement, and freedom of the media. But the commitment also extends to social issues and entrepreneurship. The other points of the programme include support for domestic entrepreneurs and farmers, more accessible healthcare even in rural areas, a reduction in the maximum duration of fixed-term contracts from 24 to 12 months, affordable housing and free textbooks.

But the movement's efforts do not stop there: among the Students' List candidates is also Zlatko Kokanović, a well-known activist from the Jadar protests against lithium mining. The Jadar mine project has for years been a battleground between European industrial interests and local communities. Once operational, the mine could cover up to 90 per cent of the European Union's current demand for lithium for electric vehicle batteries, and in June 2025 the European Commission formally designated Jadar as a "strategic project" under the Critical Raw Materials Act. Farmers and environmentalists from the fertile Jadar valley have blocked roads and gathered more than 60,000 protest signatures, raising concerns about groundwater contamination, soil degradation and the displacement of communities.

Meanwhile, forming a government is the most delicate step ahead. Vučić, who at the end of September resigned as president to run again as prime minister (having reached the term limit), has conceded defeat. Serbia now enters an unprecedented phase: a renewed collective sense of purpose, a movement born in the streets, and a balance to be restored.