Belgrade Parties All Night After Students Beat Serbian President Vučić’s Party

Red flares lit up a sea of celebrating people in central Belgrade in the early hours of Monday, October 26, as the capital partied through the night after a student-led movement won Serbia’s parliamentary election.

X user Branimir Kuzmanovic filmed the crowd as thick red smoke drifted over the heads of thousands raising their phones and cheering. “Belgrade has been ringing nonstop as if Serbia were world champion. And maybe it is,” he wrote. “Such a movement and such engagement has never been seen anywhere. Thank you, students, and thank you to all the citizens who helped.”

The Students’ List won 52.65 percent of the vote, against 39.22 percent for President Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party, according to preliminary results, ending more than a decade of rule by his party. Vučić conceded on Sunday night.

The movement grew out of mass protests after a railway station roof collapsed in Novi Sad in November 2024, killing 16 people.