Serbia’s youth movement pulled out a stunning election victory at the weekend against the country’s long-time strongman ruler Aleksandar Vucic BELGRADE, Serbia -- Serbia's youth movement pulled out a stunning election victory against the country's long-time strongman ruler Aleksandar Vucic. But turning its promises of sweeping democratic reforms into reality could prove far more difficult. The leaderless and diverse movement with few candidates with experience in politics has promised to root out corruption, free the media and guarantee the rule of law it says have been ravaged during Vucic's 14 years in power.
Though armed with a strong mandate for change stemming from a convincing election victory, a new government will still encounter a myriad of hurdles along the way. Expectations are running high and so is impatience after public discontent built over years. Here is a look at the challenges that lie ahead: Though Vucic conceded defeat just an hour and a half after polls closed on Sunday, it's likely to take weeks before a new government is formed.
Serbia's election laws provide for a period of appeals and potential reruns at individual polling stations before final election results are announced and a new Parliament is inaugurated. Any meaningful policy changes can only take place after a new government takes office. Serbia’s state election commission so far has released only preliminary and incomplete results of the vote on Sunday, but they are unlikely to change much — the Students’ List is set to have a comfortable majority of 140 seats in the 250-member Parliament while Vucic’s SNS party will have 104.
The process could be further complicated by a presidential election that Serbia must also hold following Vucic's resignation as president last month. Vucic stepped down to lead the SNS ticket in the parliamentary race, hoping to return to power as prime minister, triggering the need for a separate vote to choose his successor as head of state. As joyful crowds took to the streets to celebrate the students' victory on Sunday, some in the crowd stoned the withdrawing police and dismantled a camp used by Vucic loyalists in a park in central Belgrade for more than a year.
On Monday evening, groups of people also stormed the notorious pro-Vucic private Informer television that has led a campaign labeling student protesters as enemies of the state and traitors. The same TV carried a live broadcast of the mass funeral in September in Belgrade for Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb commander convicted of genocide by a U.N. court. Police cordons also on Monday guarded another pro-Vucic broadcaster, Pink TV, and Vucic was swift to condemn the “violence,” warning his supporters could “self-organize.” The incidents are seen as minor in view of the deep polarization and confrontation among opposed camps in Serbia.
But they illustrate the volatility of the situation and a potential for escalation in case of a prolonged power vacuum. Media expert Snezana Milivojevic told N1 television that the media situation is particularly sensitive because it is “before everyone's eyes.” While changes are taking place spontaneously in some state-run media, private television channels like Informer continued with pro-Vucic propaganda after Sunday. Among those who broke into the TV station and confronted the editor-in-chief Dragan Vucicevic was Dijana Hrka, the mother of one of the 16 victims of the 2024 train station tragedy in Serbia’s north that set off the protests.
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