About ۱۵۰,۰۰۰ supporters of Serbia’s opposition student movement rallied in central Belgrade on Thursday, seeking to oust the party of veteran leader Aleksandar Vucic in crunch parliamentary elections this weekend.
The Student List, a leaderless movement of student-backed candidates, wants to end more than ۱۴ years of rule by Vucic’s rightwing populist Serbian Progressive party (SNS) in Sunday’s vote.
Civil society groups have said the campaign has been marred by intimidation, arrests and misuse of public resources.
“I came to support the Student List because young people finally gave me hope that it is possible to live in a normal country,” Marija Nedeljkovic Radic, ۴۷, said as she arrived for the students’ rally.
“Really, for the first time in my life, I believe that it is possible.”
Sunday’s vote comes after nearly two years of student-led protests sparked by the ۲۰۲۴ collapse of a canopy at the newly renovated Novi Sad railway station that killed ۱۶ people.
The tragedy, widely blamed on corruption, triggered some of Serbia’s largest protests since the fall of Slobodan Milošević in ۲۰۰۰.
The anti-corruption movement, led by university students, snowballed from demands for a transparent investigation into the tragedy into calls for an early election.
Waving “Students are winning” flags, chanting and blowing whistles, students and their supporters marched through Belgrade before converging on Slavija Square, the site of some of their biggest protests.
The Archive of Public Gatherings, an independent crowd-size monitoring group, estimated about ۱۵۰,۰۰۰ people gathered at the rally.
“We are putting an end to ۱۴ years of humiliation, chaos and betrayal, and to decades of putting personal and party interests above yours,” university professor Jugoslav Gasic – one of ۲۵۰ candidates on the Student List – told the crowd, which chanted “Victory, victory!”
“You deserve better, and we know how to deliver it. Students are winning!”
Vucic has dominated Serbian politics for over a decade, serving as either prime minister or president.
Amid mounting pressure, Vucic announced the snap vote last month, setting up his biggest electoral challenge since his party took power in ۲۰۱۲.
Vucic, who addressed supporters at a sports hall in the capital on Thursday, has regularly accused the student movement of being a foreign-funded coup attempt.
“Let us never forget how they tried to bring down our state. Let us always protect and defend it,” said the ۵۶-year-old, who resigned to run for prime minister.
“Let us go out and defeat them! Defeat them decisively!” he said before white ticker tape and balloons showered the crowd.
Many of the ۲۵۰ candidates of the Student List running for the ۲۵۰-seat parliament are drawn from academia or are deliberate political outsiders.
The movement has a broad platform, but at its core is a pledge to fight corruption.
Serbia lacks reliable independent polling, and surveys have produced widely differing results.
Days before the vote, Serbian civil society groups warned that conditions for “free and fair elections” were lacking.
On Wednesday, Belgrade prosecutors questioned six people arrested on suspicion of plotting “violence, riots and attacks” on election day.
Reports of threats and intimidation targeting student demonstrators have grown in recent months, but their rallies have remained largely peaceful since they began.
“I’ve been following this fight since the very beginning,” ۳۵-year-old student rally attender Igor said.
“Today is the last rally, and it’s important that we all come here to send a message of love and peace and that we see each other on the ۲۵th at the polling stations.”
