Serbia's student movement: How and why students brought down Vučić

They have no obvious leaders and have no grounding in politics, and yet the “Student List-Students Win” movement attracted anti-government voters across Serbian society.

They fielded candidates for all 250 parliamentary seats, and yet no students were among them.

As he joined the students marching towards Belgrade last week, lead candidate and cardiologist Ilija Srdanović said history was being rewritten: “The energy is unstoppable.”

“We offer our citizens the core values of civilised society, which this previous regime has taken away from our citizens for the last time,” he told the BBC.

It all began on 1 November 2024, when the concrete canopy collapsed outside Novi Sad train station, in Serbia’s second biggest city, killing 16 people.

The tragedy was seen as emblematic of widespread corruption. Critics linked the station’s fatally flawed renovation to a president who had closely associated himself with the project.

“When the canopy collapsed that served as the last straw,” says Helena Ivanov of the think tank the Henry Jackson Society.

It was an emotional moment that triggered a spark and a national campaign of marches and events, she said, that captured the hearts and minds of Serbians in a way no opposition party had been able to do.