Guest blog by Damjan Mileusnic, Partners Serbia
On 25 October 2026, Serbia went to the polls in their parliamentary elections. Amid a historic voter turnout, the Student List claimed victory, bringing an end to more than 14 years of the authoritarian ruling party. According to preliminary data from the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK), the Student List will hold an absolute majority of 140 out of 250 seats in the National Assembly, while the SNS-led coalition will have 104. The Student List won more than 2.2 million votes against 1.67 million for Vučić’s coalition and Serbia will get a new government after more than 14 years.
What made this result possible was not a single campaign moment but months of patience, students mobilizing and demanding accountability for the last 2 years. Students walked across Serbia, from town to town and village to village, carrying their message to places that politicians usually ignore. They organized peaceful gatherings that brought together people of all ages and backgrounds, and they talked to citizens directly. Social media helped them mobilize and spread their message while marches and face-to-face conversations reached voters beyond the digital space. It was politics rebuilt from the ground up, based on listening rather than broadcasting.
All of this unfolded in an environment with limited media freedom. International media also reported on the government’s control over the media, as well as allegations of surveillance and cyberattacks targeting activists. The fact that the students still reached millions of people shows how much determination it took, and how much citizens wanted to hear a different voice.
The student movement began with simple, uncompromising demands for accountability, transparency in how public decisions are made, and an end to corruption that took the lives of 16 people after the railroad concrete canopy collapsed in Novi Sad back in November 2024. Those demands never became slogans for one leader. They became a shared language that teachers, farmers, lawyers, doctors, pensioners and workers across the country could recognize as their own.
This victory is proof of something civil society has argued for years. When people organize around accountability and transparency, the effects are not only symbolic. They can be measured in votes, seats, and real political change.
High turnout is a sign that citizens believed their vote could make a difference. After years of apathy and distrust in institutions, that belief is itself a democratic achievement.
At Partners Serbia, we have spent years working on the same values the students brought into the streets and onto the ballot: transparent institutions, an independent and accountable judiciary, the fight against corruption, and meaningful citizen participation. We have monitored the transparency of courts and prosecutors, advocated for stronger anti-corruption mechanisms, and supported citizens in using the legal tools available to them.
But a change of government is not the finish line. Accountability does not end on election night. It has to be built into institutions, laws and everyday practice, and every new government must be held accountable. That is where civil society’s role continues: monitoring, analyzing, proposing solutions, and making sure the promises made to citizens are kept. Serbia’s citizens have shown what organized, peaceful, persistent demands for accountability can achieve. The job of civil society organizations now is to help turn that energy into lasting institutional change.
The views expressed in guest blogs do not necessarily represent the positions of the Coalition but are published for the purpose of prompting healthy debate.
