After a whole year of protests, students in Serbia are already thinking about preparing for parliamentary elections. However, President Aleksandar Vucic is looking for a date that would be most convenient for him.
Serbia is already in a pre-election situation, although there is no date for the early elections yet. After more than a year of protests, blockades and political tension, President Aleksandar Vucic has accepted the challenge of students and citizens who want an early vote. When, however, is unclear.
In the last few months, Vučić has gradually narrowed down his options - first the promise was without any details, then "at the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027", and now there is talk of October, November or December 2026.
Is it possible for Vučić to lose the elections?
If the president keeps his promise, he may even part with power, believes Dušan Spasojević, a professor of political science at the University of Belgrade. "The greatest strength of students and the opposition is the change we are observing in the electorate," the expert says. "Now the ruling party and the opposition have almost equal support, and for the first time we will have elections in which Vucic not only can lose, but most likely will lose."
"However, this should not calm anyone down", Spasojević emphasized to DW. "There is still a lot of time before the elections, and the government has enormous resources. They have repeatedly demonstrated that they can get out of difficult situations."
Students enter the campaign
By the end of 2025, the mass protests in Serbia had largely subsided. The blockades of faculties were lifted, students returned to universities. The student movement has entered a phase of transformation - from organizing protests to an election campaign.
After a long process of selecting candidates for parliamentarians, students are now creating election headquarters, training election observers and preparing their political platform. While a group of students speaks to people door to door, another organizes actions such as "Student in Every Village", within which contacts are sought with the inhabitants of each settlement. In this way, students not only try to counteract the image that pro-government tabloids create of them, but also to understand the criticisms and concerns of the people.
Mobilizing voters and building trust
Danilo Erdeljan and Sonja Hajdukovic are students from Novi Sad who regularly go around meeting with citizens. Their goal is not only mobilization, but also building trust. In parallel, they learn about election rules and campaigning. They are adamant that postponing the elections is actually beneficial to them, not the government, because their organization is getting stronger with each passing day.
“The government is waiting to see if people will get tired and give up, but at the same time it gives us the opportunity to prepare”, points out Danilo Erdelyan. ”We have already seen how difficult it is for the ruling coalition to organize its electoral fraud at the local level, and it will be much more difficult in the parliamentary elections. In the meantime, we are preparing better and better for the problems we may encounter on election day.”
Support for the student movement has not weakened, and the collection of signatures for the early elections continues. The students say that on December 28, in just one day, they collected 400,000 signatures, and many citizens have left their contacts to receive more information about their activities. For the movement, this is a clear confirmation that the potential for mass mobilization has not disappeared, it has simply been temporarily weakened. Calling elections could stimulate it again.
Difficulties are inevitable
But while the opposition organizes, the government is not standing idly by. It is under serious pressure due to the threat of US sanctions on the Russian-owned Serbian oil company NIS, as well as the loss of key partners - both in the face of the US and the EU, and Russia. Aleksandar Vučić is very carefully considering when to schedule the elections, so that they can be held at the most favorable time for him.
According to DW sources, this means that he will most likely postpone them as much as possible, even if this deepens the crisis. At the same time, there are indications that the authorities are hardening their approach - in recent months hundreds have been removed from government jobs. The target is not only people who participated in the protests, but also those whose relatives did so and even those who were neutral but did not support the government.
Several students have been accused of undermining the constitutional order, some are in political exile. Pressure on universities is also increasing. A professor who supported the students was dismissed without following legal procedures. The state has also introduced a new system for financing universities, placing them entirely under its financial control. Thus, they have lost their independence.
The students are aware that they have a long and difficult year ahead of them. "If people have endured everything so far, they will endure more", says Danilo Erdelyan. "We knew from the very beginning that this is not a sprint, but a marathon. I believe that we will endure as long as necessary."