Vucic Concedes Defeat in Serbian Election

Foreign Affairs State of the Union: The longtime Serbian leader’s party lost to a student-backed coalition Sunday. Photo by Andrej Ivanov/Getty Images In a speech Sunday night, former Serbian president and prime minister Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat in his country's parliamentary elections. Vucic, who has dominated Serbian politics since 2012, lost to a new student-backed political grouping called Student List-Students Win, which took around 140 seats to his party’s 103. Students have played an outsized role in the opposition to Vucic’s government. Following the 2024 Novi Sad train canopy collapse, they led street demonstrations demanding accountability for the disaster, which quickly snowballed into broader anti-corruption protests. Ahead of the election, Student List-Students Win cited ending corruption, protecting media independence, raising living standards, and improving relations with neighboring countries as its chief priorities. It is not yet clear who the bloc will tap to be prime minister.