Not only are they newcomers to politics, but Serbia’s election winners have no obvious leader and are faced with a series of complex challenges, including taking on the country’s highly complex balancing act on the international stage.
Serbia is both a candidate to join the European Union and maintains close relations with Russia. Its bid to join the bloc has long been on the back-burner, while its Western Balkan neighbours press ahead.
The EU was quick to welcome the Student List victory and has promised to back their push for reforms to the rule of law, media freedom and fight against corruption.
But EU integration occupies a strikingly minor place in the students’ election manifesto, which describes the bloc merely as Serbia’s “most important economic partner”.
For years, Belgrade has balanced its foreign policy between the EU and its eastern partners, Russia and China. Belgrade has managed to stand out in Europe by not imposing sanctions on Moscow since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In return, Serbia has been rewarded with preferential gas prices that have helped maintain domestic stability, and Vladimir Putin publicly endorsed Vučić’s bid to remain in power.
That does not mean that the students have any plans to change course, and changing Serbia’s foreign policy may not be high on their list.
“Serbia had it own experience with sanctions in the 1990s and we know that they mostly harm ordinary people and do not affect policies of a state,” said Dejan Šoškić, referring to UN sanctions imposed during the wars in former Yugoslavia.
The new government’s initial focus will most likely be on domestic reform, and the clock is already ticking before the next election campaign, with presidential elections due to take place in December.
Aleksandar Vučić is legally barred from running for a third term as president, but he has promised that his defeated Serbian Progressive Party will fight back: “We will beat them much faster than they can even imagine.”
