Serbia’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, October 25, delivered a decisive defeat to President Aleksandar Vučić’s ruling camp, with the student-led opposition winning an outright majority after nearly two years of mass protests.
Yet behind this major political shift lies a fundamental question: where is the independent political voice of the working class?
According to preliminary results released by Serbia’s Electoral Commission, the Student List secured 52.54% of the vote, compared with 39.29% for the Vučić-backed United Serbia coalition. The result followed widespread demonstrations against corruption and government policies, sparked by the deadly railway station canopy collapse in Novi Sad in November 2024.
Serbia’s communist organizations approached the elections from different positions. The Communists of Serbia highlighted the student movement under the slogan “Students Win,” while the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ) participated through the electoral list of the Russian Party, promoting cooperation with Russia and BRICS and opposition to NATO and the European Union.
Neither organization, however, entered the electoral contest as an independent communist force presenting a comprehensive socialist alternative. The NKPJ’s electoral alliance failed to secure parliamentary representation, while the student-led movement attracted support from a broad assortment of opposition parties with differing political agendas.
The outcome therefore reflects not only the rejection of Vučić’s long-standing rule, but also the political direction taken by popular discontent. Demands for democracy, accountability and an end to corruption became the dominant expression of a movement whose origins also lay in deep social dissatisfaction.
The defeat of Vučić is a significant political development, but a change of government does not, in itself, challenge capitalist power. The absence of a strong, independent Communist Party capable of connecting workers’ and students’ struggles with a socialist perspective remains a central weakness of Serbia’s political landscape.
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