Photos: Serbia celebrates as ruling party loses grip on power

Two years of student-led protests against corruption and mismanagement culminate in election victory.Serbians celebrate in Belgrade after Aleksandar Vucic, leader of the right-wing Serbian Progressive Party, conceded defeat in the parliamentary elections on October 25, 2026. [Armin Durgut/AP Photo]Celebrations have erupted across Serbia after a student-backed movement ousted President Aleksandar Vucic’s ruling party in snap parliamentary elections, ending his long grip on power.In Belgrade late on Sunday, drivers in cars draped in Serbian flags honked their horns through the streets as fireworks lit up the sky and crowds flooded central squares and the area around parliament. “I feel as though I am finally living in a free country,” student Mila Martic told reporters as people raised three fingers, the Student List ballot symbol and a traditional Serbian greeting.Sunday’s elections capped nearly two years of student-led demonstrations triggered by the 2024 collapse of a canopy at the Novi Sad railway station, which killed 16 people, a disaster widely blamed on corruption and cronyism. The movement grew into some of Serbia’s largest protests since the 2000 overthrow of strongman Slobodan Milosevic.At the Student List headquarters, supporters hugged, cried and chanted, “Victory, victory!” Candidate Radomir Saicic, a university professor, declared: “Serbia has won as we promised. Never again a tyrant in this country,” while he urged peaceful, dignified celebrations and “serious, responsible hard work” from Monday.Elsewhere, pro-government encampments near parliament were dismantled as riot police trucks withdrew to the sound of cheering crowds.Vucic conceded defeat in the elections, which pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting against his government. [Marko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo]The opposition's win is a seismic political shift in the Balkan country, where Vucic, who had been endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and who denounced the student movement as a foreign-led attempt to unseat him, was in power for 14 years. [Armin Durgut/AP Photo]Almost immediately after the results were announced, crowds flooded the streets of Belgrade and other Serbian cities in celebration. [Milos Milanovic/AFP]Supporters of the Student List drove around Belgrade in cars, honking horns, singing, shouting and chanting: “Aleksandar is gone.” [Armin Durgut/AP Photo]Crowds swiftly dismantled the fences and tents at a park in central Belgrade where Vucic loyalists had been camping for more than a year. [Marko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo]Belgrade resident Dragana Kovacevic was thrilled that “everyone greets with smiles”. She said: "We are all too happy. Finally, we are becoming one normal and free country.” [Andrej Isakovic/AFP]Voter Maja Stetic said she feels “fantastic”. Vucic's ouster, she said, "means liberation for me, means a new future for us and our children”. [Armin Durgut/AP Photo]Monitors predicted that voter turnout in the elections could reach about 70 percent, a level unseen in Serbia since 2000. [Armin Durgut/AP Photo]Long queues had formed at polling stations on October 25, 2026. Some members of the Serbian diaspora were made to vote in the middle of the night after authorities tied voting hours to Serbian time. [Oliver Bunic/AFP]