Flares Turn New Belgrade Sky Red as Students Beat Serbian President Vučić’s Party

Red flares bathed the night sky over New Belgrade as huge crowds celebrated the student movement’s election victory over President Aleksandar Vučić’s ruling party on Sunday, October 25.

X user Biljana Stojkovic filmed the jubilant crowd filling a wide boulevard between the tower blocks, as clouds of pink smoke billowed overhead and people raised their phones to capture the moment. “A deserved celebration! New Belgrade, happiness, liberation, love, freedom,” she wrote.

The student-led Students’ List won 52.65 percent of the vote, against 39.22 percent for Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party, according to preliminary results from the election commission, giving the movement around 140 of the 250 seats in parliament.

Vučić conceded shortly after polls closed. “It is clear we have lost these elections,” he said. Tens of thousands poured into the streets of Belgrade, Novi Sad and other cities, chanting, honking car horns and setting off fireworks late into the night.

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