Graduation day
The students who toppled Aleksandar Vučić inherit a stalled EU bid, a leaky budget and a sanctioned oil company. Unsurprisingly, a small army of right-wing influencers hastily imported from various parts of the world was not enough to convince Serbs that they should stick with Aleksandar Vučić, the country’s erstwhile president who resigned during the […] Graduation day was originally published…
On graduation day, Serbia's student-led movement won a landslide victory in the snap parliamentary elections held on October 25. The election was preceded by two years of protests against former President Aleksandar Vučić, who resigned and called for the election to become prime minister. The new government is likely to have a majority of 135 seats in the 250-seat parliament.
Despite Vučić's authoritarian tendencies, he did not call a snap election or concede defeat. The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) counted ballots from 96.8 percent of polling stations, with the Student List receiving 53.3 percent of the vote, compared to 39.7 percent for the United Serbia ticket. Turnout was near 70 percent, the highest since the breakup of Yugoslavia.
The outgoing government had a troubled record, with a stalled EU bid, a leaky budget, and an oil company sanctioned by the West due to its ties to Gazprom Neft. The new government will have to face these challenges and work towards advancing Serbia's future in the European Union.
Written by urgent.news from Emerging Europe's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
