On a cool autumn evening, a team of Serbian student volunteers went canvassing in the housing estates of Krnjača, a Belgrade suburb. They were equipped with lanyards emblazoned with the word “victory”, a stock list of questions and a mobile app that mapped visited homes and the level of support in each. The volunteers were part of a mass student movement, Student List, that has rocked Serbia with two years of constant protests.
On Sunday, the group will represent the most serious challenge Aleksandar Vučić has faced in his 12 increasingly authoritarian years in power, by putting forward their own candidates in parliamentary elections. They hope to emulate the defeat of Vučić’s ally, Viktor Orbán, in neighbouring Hungary six months ago, in a domino effect that could bring a democratic resurgence to central Europe. Opinion polls have varied wildly, but many expert observers say a close race is quite possible, with neither side prepared to accept a loss as a legitimate result, raising the risk of post-election unrest and clashes.
In order to win, the students’ list of 250 candidates would have to break the mould of Serbian politics, along with Vučić’s grip on the country. He stepped down as president last month, five months before the end of his second and last term in office under the constitution, but only with the aim of extending his hold on power as prime minister at the head of his Serbian Progressive party (SNS). In the section of the suburb assigned to them, law student Zak Veličković and campaign photographer Danijela Radojković were welcomed with overwhelming support.
Apart from a small handful of polite doorstep rejections, from those claiming they had no interest in politics, people seized the opportunity to air their grievances. Most promised their vote and a large minority offered help: some taxi drivers with flats in the low-rise apartment blocks said they would help ferry voters to the polling stations. Veličković began each conversation by asking what was the biggest problem in Serbian society, a query that often raised a laugh and replies such as: “How much time do you have?” Corruption was the most frequent single complaint.
On the corruption index run by Transparency International, Serbia ranks far worse than any of its neighbours, as the most corrupt country in Europe bar the dictatorships in Belarus and Russia. There are frequent allegations of links between the SNS and organised crime, and the Student List’s slogan confronts that widespread perception head on, posing the question: “Serbia or Mafia?” The government denies all accusations and officially claims to be tackling organised crime. The key local issues in Krnjača were the poor repair of the road bridge linking the suburb and central Belgrade, and the sewage system, which repeatedly fails in heavy rain, despite a personal promise by Vučić, who residents said had visited a few years earlier, to fix the problem.
The economy has been growing in recent years, but there is a widespread opinion that the fruits are not being fairly distributed. Porsche and Land Rover car showrooms have been established in Krnjača but public spaces look neglected. Some of Belgrade’s trams are more than 50 years old.
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