Around 150,000 rally in Belgrade as Serbia heads to pivotal poll

Around 150,000 supporters of Serbia's opposition student movement gathered in central Belgrade on Thursday, seeking to unseat the party of veteran leader Aleksandar Vucic in upcoming parliamentary elections. The Student List, a leaderless movement of student-backed candidates, aims to end over 14 years of rule by Vucic's right-wing Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

This is the most significant challenge Vucic has faced, with civil society groups warning of intimidation, arrests, attacks, misuse of public resources, and a distorted media environment ahead of Sunday's vote.

The rally was organized by the Student List, which drew its candidates from academia and deliberate political outsiders. The movement has pledged to fight corruption. Days before the vote, Serbian civil society groups expressed concerns that conditions for free and fair elections were lacking. They cited documented findings from independent Serbian organizations working in various fields.

University professor Jugoslav Gasic, one of the 250 candidates on the Student List, addressed the crowd, urging them to reject 14 years of humiliation, chaos, and betrayal. Vucic, who addressed supporters at a sports hall in the capital, accused the student movement of being a foreign-funded coup attempt. He vowed to defeat the opposition decisively, with white ticker tape and balloons showering the crowd.