Students march into Belgrade for final rally three days before Serbia's snap vote

Thousands of people lined the streets of Belgrade on Wednesday evening to welcome columns of students who marched into the capital ahead of Thursday’s final pre-election rally at Slavija Square, the Associated Press reported.

The Student List movement, which has rattled Aleksandar Vucic more than ever during his 12 years in power, stages its final rally today — Thursday — three days before Sunday’s snap parliamentary election.

The student-backed list, fielding 250 candidates who are mostly academics and professionals, was put neck and neck with Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party by a poll this week, according to Reuters, leaving Sunday’s outcome uncertain. Vucic held a rival rally in the southern city of Nis on Wednesday.

Vucic resigned the presidency in September to seek a return as prime minister.

Ilija Srdanovic, a physician and Students’ List candidate, told N1 television: “this is incredible, this energy is unstoppable.”

Separately, a Reuters investigation published on Thursday detailed repression of critics: activist Marko Marjanovic said masked officers took him to a police-station basement where he spent two days in solitary confinement. Serbia’s Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability reported on Wednesday on more than 100 violent incidents during the campaign and a major media imbalance favouring Vucic, while international monitors and the EU have voiced concern over the ballot.

The student movement began after the Novi Sad station canopy collapse of 1 November 2024, which killed 16 people.

Sources

• Associated Press, “Students march into Belgrade while populist Vucic holds rally in Serbia’s south ahead of vote” (mirrored at bastillepost.com): https://www.bastillepost.com/global/article/6277522-students-march-into-belgrade-while-populist-vucic-holds-rally-in-serbias-south-ahead-of-vote
• Reuters (Ivana Sekularac), “Beatings, cyberattacks and threats darken Vucic’s Serbia ahead of elections”, 2026-10-22: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/beatings-cyberattacks-threats-darken-vucics-serbia-ahead-elections-2026-10-22/
• Zotpaper (citing The Guardian), “Serbian student movement challenges Vučić in snap parliamentary elections”, 2026-10-21: https://zot.news/article/serbian-student-movement-challenges-vucic-snap-parliamentary-tzelk
• Wikipedia, “Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novi_Sad_railway_station_canopy_collapse