Student List vows clean-up after Serbia election victory

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 31 Oct, 20:08 · Archive

A grassroots movement called the Student List has won Serbia's election and says it will prioritise removing corrupt officials.

The Student List, a grassroots movement of professors, activists and artists, won Serbia's election on 25 October with 53 per cent of the vote, defeating President Aleksandar Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party, which received 39 per cent. The movement emerged from student protests and has promised to prioritise anti-corruption efforts in government.

At a gathering in Belgrade on Thursday, Student List candidates called for the dismissal of many senior law enforcement officials, including the chiefs of the criminal police, the paramilitary gendarmerie and an anti-terrorism unit. They also demanded the resignation of the director of Serbia's internal intelligence agency, accusing him of running the organisation as 'a party security service, not a state security service'. Candidate Svetlana Stanarević called for the reopening or expediting of cases related to the canopy collapse at a renovated railway station in Novi Sad that killed 16 people two years ago, for which there have yet to be any convictions.

Since the election, change has moved quickly. According to DW News, the general director of the Serbian state broadcaster RTS has resigned, and senior RTS editors have been dismissed. A special commission is examining the work of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, which critics say favoured Vučić's interests. Vučić has complained of 'revolutionary terror', whilst tabloid media outlets previously loyal to him have shifted their coverage of the Student List.

How it is being reported

• Serbia after Vucic: The winners are losing patienceAfter the Student List's election victory, Aleksandar Vucic's power apparatus is disintegrating. People want justice as soon as possible. But the eleciton losers still hold sway in the judiciary and administration.DW News · 31 Oct, 19:49
• ‘Swift justice’: Student List supporters focus on cleaning up Serbia’s rotten institutionsAfter improbable election victory, the unconventional grassroots movement says it will prioritise dismissal of corrupt officials In Belgrade’s Pioneers Park, just across from the national assembly, a small crowd craned their necks to listen. One woman held aloft a placard reading “Love prevailed for the people and Serbia”. With a bouquet of media microphones in front of them, members of the Student List, the direct democracy movement that won an improbable but decisive victory in Sunday’s election, gathered under the trees. Having spent days bathing in the euphoria of their unexpected…The Guardian · 30 Oct, 10:54

In this story: Student List · Aleksandar Vučić · Serbian Progressive Party · Serbia · Belgrade · Novi Sad · Svetlana Stanarević

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem · Corrections log