Local elections in ten Serbian municipalities were marked by clashes and intense political polarization, with the student movement challenging President Aleksandar Vučić’s long-standing rule, reported the French newspaper Sud Ouest on its website.
According to foreign media and observers, several incidents occurred on the margins of these partial local elections. For more than a year, Serbian politics has been dominated by the student movement, which is participating in these elections as a test of Vučić’s power.
The student movement emerged after the tragic collapse of a railway platform in Novi Sad in November 2024, which killed 16 people. Since then, it has transformed into a political force, regularly organizing demonstrations that sometimes attract hundreds of thousands of people, criticizing government corruption, and calling for early parliamentary elections.
In the current elections, student lists were presented in ten municipalities, mostly in central Serbia, either independently or in coalition with opposition parties. Sud Ouest cited reports from N1 about incidents during voting.
Despite low voter turnout—only 3.8% of eligible Serbs, roughly 250,000 of 6.5 million registered voters—the stakes are high for both the students and Vučić, who has led Serbia since 2014.
The President campaigned extensively in municipalities controlled by his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which the French newspaper described as a “nationalist right-wing” party. Other French media outlets also reported on election-related incidents in Serbia.
