Serbia’s Student Win Meets the Old Power Structure

Serbia’s Student List won the parliamentary elections on Oct. 25, but the voted-out Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) still controlled the security services, army, prosecutors and police while the new majority waited for its mandates to be verified. Belgrade’s celebrations ran through the night and into the following day. The transfer of power did not.

The Student List was expected to hold about 140 of the parliament’s 250 seats. Yet the new parliamentary majority wasn’t expected to be verified for at least another month, leaving the country in what the report described as institutional limbo. The ballot produced a result; it didn’t immediately hand the incoming bloc the institutions it hopes to change.

The vote and the machinery

Until a new parliament and government are formed, control remains with the SNS and its leader, Aleksandar Vučić. Most media also remain under the influence of Vučić and his allies. The office of the president is held by Ana Brnabić, speaker of the recently dissolved parliament, a close associate of Vučić and a former prime minister for several terms. Vučić held the presidency for the previous nine years before resigning in September.

That is the practical distance between winning an election and exercising power. The Student List is still awaiting final tallies, and the student movement behind the bloc is voting on the next government’s leadership. Slobodan Bubnjević, a physicist and science journalist expected to become one of the bloc’s members of parliament, said transformation should begin only after the election procedure was complete, mandates were verified and a lawful transfer of power took place.

“A vacuum is felt among the public, but this is about ‘removing the handcuffs’ from institutions, not about anarchy. There is no real legal vacuum. The institutions exist, the procedures are clear, and people in public office have prescribed duties for which they are accountable,” Bubnjević said. He called the bloc “not in some kind of revolutionary interregnum” and said “there will be no attempt by the Student List to govern outside of any legal procedure.”

The Student Plan sets out three priorities: anti-corruption, expansion of education and innovation, and economic reforms. Its anti-corruption proposals include confiscating illegally acquired wealth, creating a special prosecutorial police force, dismissing police employees “linked to the mafia,” vetting public officials, and protecting the freedom of the judiciary and media. These are proposals, not actions already carried out.

Promises meet obstruction

Dušan Spasojević, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences – University of Belgrade, said the bloc’s “task zero” was managing expectations. “The desire for change is great, and expectations are even greater. Some want everyone in power to be arrested and dismissed, but none of that happens overnight,” he said.

Spasojević added that “the SNS’s tactic will be active resistance and possibly obstruction,” which could leave the Student List with a majority but “no ability to use it effectively.” A parliamentary count, in other words, doesn’t guarantee command of the institutions still held by the outgoing political camp.

Bubnjević declined to detail the bloc’s first steps in office, saying they were “defined by the Student Plan.” He said a transformation begun before the procedure was complete would be illegal and unsuccessful. The movement’s stated route is through verified mandates and a lawful transfer, even as public pressure pushes for rapid change in media and public institutions.

Between Brussels and Moscow

Student List representatives had not appeared on Serbian television but had spoken in Russian and European media. On election night, a future deputy told the Russian channel RT Balkan that Serbia wouldn’t impose sanctions on Russia. Another candidate, who wouldn’t enter parliament, told RT Balkan the following morning that Serbia was “grateful to the Russian Federation for the favorable gas arrangement.”

Ilija Srdanović, a cardiologist and the Student List’s top parliamentary candidate, said the bloc’s core values were “very similar to European civilizational values.” He saw no obstacles to stronger cooperation and continued Serbian integration into the European Union. Serbia has been an EU membership candidate since 2012, but its accession process had been completely stalled over the preceding five years.

Srdanović named “creating the conditions for the rule of law, equality, freedom, media and personal freedoms, as well as respect for democratic principles” as the first and most important goal. The election has opened a route to government, not settled who can use the state’s institutions—or how quickly the promised changes can reach them.