Serbia’s student movement demands resignations and transparency following election victory
Serbia’s student movement on Thursday demanded the resignations of top officials in the police, intelligence agencies, and the judiciary as they prepare to take power after a historic election win last weekend against former strongman leader Aleksandar Vučić, reports BritPanorama.
The students at a news conference also urged Serbia’s election authorities to officially declare the final results of Sunday’s ballot without delay after a rerun at some 50 polling stations next Sunday, so that a new Parliament and government can be formed.
The Students’ List movement swept the parliamentary election on Sunday against Vučić’s right-wing Serbian Progressive Party, which has ruled unchallenged for 14 years. The outgoing authorities remain in control as the formal transition of power will take several weeks.
“Changes are starting now,” student Filip Ubovic said at the news conference held at a central Belgrade park that used to be a sealed-off area occupied by Vučić’s loyalists. “Institutions belong to the citizens and the law applies to everyone.”
Vučić’s party has gradually taken control over all state institutions since it came to power in 2012. The SNS party has been accused of rampant corruption and cronyism, links to organized crime, and pressure on the judiciary, police, and the media, which the populists have denied.
The students on Thursday asked public servants to prevent outgoing officials from destroying documentation or evidence of potential wrongdoing.
Vučić on Thursday held a news conference of his own, accusing the election winners of “revolutionary terror” after groups of people stormed the Informer TV station that led the pre-election propaganda branding the students as traitors and enemies of the state.
Suspicions of state corruption in infrastructure projects two years ago set off a wave of street protests after a collapsed canopy at a train station in Serbia’s north killed 16 people after a renovation. The students led those protests before challenging and defeating Vučić at the early ballot on Sunday.
The students’ win on Sunday marks the first time that a grassroots youth movement toppled a well-established political leader. It comes at a moment when similar movements are mushrooming across Europe.
The students said in their briefing that top police officials and the intelligence agencies had served Vučić’s party during the protests in violation of the law. They have been accused of using excessive force against protesters, illegal surveillance, detention, and pressure on Vučić’s political opponents.
This unfolding situation underscores a potential shift in the political landscape, one that could resonate well beyond Serbia.
