Serbia's Student List Demands Police, Intelligence and Judiciary Resignations After Election Win

Serbia's student movement on Thursday, October 29, 2026, demanded the resignation of top officials in the police, intelligence agencies and the judiciary, days after its Student List won the parliamentary election against former strongman Aleksandar Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party, which had ruled for 14 years. At a news conference in Pioneers' Park in Belgrade, newly elected MPs called for the dismissal of all police officers who had broken the law and singled out the heads of the police, the BIA security agency and the anti-terror unit. Student Filip Ubovic said changes were starting now and that institutions belong to the citizens and the law applies to everyone. The students also urged election authorities to declare final results without delay after a rerun at about 50 polling stations on Sunday, November 1, so a new parliament and government can be formed. The outgoing authorities remain in control because the formal handover will take several weeks, and the movement fears evidence of wrongdoing could be destroyed in that time. The movement grew out of protests after a railway station canopy collapse killed 16 people in November 2024.

The left-leaning Nation, in an opinion piece, treats the result as a victory for organizing power. It opens with the author's personal story as a foreign exchange student from former Yugoslavia in 1994, describes the movement as a possible formula for rescuing democracy through nonviolence and collectivism, and links it to the struggle over American democracy. It focuses on meaning and lessons rather than the students' demands. The alternative and independent outlets, BBC News and The Hindu, are distinctly more event-driven. They report the Thursday demands, the named security chiefs, the rerun and the weeks-long transition. BBC adds the novice make-up of the new MPs, including as many as 12 doctors, and a volunteer cleanup of the former loyalist camp. Right-leaning outlets had not reported this story at the time of writing, while left-leaning and alternative outlets had.