Thousands gather at final student-led rally ahead of Serbia election

The student movement aims to end Vucic’s 14 years of rule at Sunday’s vote, as he holds a rival rally across town.Tens of thousands of supporters of Serbia’s student-led opposition movement have gathered in central Belgrade for their final rally ahead of a Parliamentary Election in which they hope to oust veteran leader Aleksandar Vucic’s party.The crowds filled the capital on Thursday, as Vucic held a rival rally at a sports hall across town.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Serbia’s snap election: Can Vucic outmanoeuvre the student revolt?list 2 of 3Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic resigns amid prolonged protestslist 3 of 3A year after student protests shook Valjevo: Serbia at a crossroadsend of listWaving “students are winning” flags and blowing whistles, the marchers converged on Slavija Square, the site of some of the movement’s biggest protests.Sunday’s vote is seen as a chance to end Vucic’s longtime rule.“Really, for the first time in my life, I believe that it is possible,” said Marija Nedeljkovic Radic, 47, who said young people had given her hope of “a normal country“.The vote follows nearly two years of student-led protests triggered by the 2024 collapse of a canopy at a newly renovated railway station in Novi Sad that killed 16 people.The Student List, a leaderless movement of student-backed candidates, is seeking to unseat Vucic’s right-wing populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has been in power for more than 14 years.It is running 250 candidates for the 250-seat parliament, many of them academics or political outsiders, on a platform centred on fighting corruption.“We are putting an end to 14 years of humiliation, chaos and betrayal, and to decades of putting personal and party interests above yours,” university professor Jugoslav Gasic, one of the candidates on the Student List, told the crowd in Belgrade, who chanted “Victory, victory!”