But the student-led movement is “heavily depersonalized,” said Novaković, and is focused on issues with broad electoral appeal. “They managed to create a single unitary platform which is mainly centered around issues related to the rule of law. All the issues that previously divided the Serbian electorate were not in the cards,” he added.
The government’s first line of attack against the growing political movement was to argue that students could not run a country. So the protesters built a list of hand-picked candidates, including doctors, engineers and professors — people who made their careers outside of politics.
“Many people are happy to hear that someone isn’t a politician but, say, a doctor,” Golubović said. “It isn’t hard to pitch the idea that an expert is going to help more than someone whose main skill is to talk into a microphone for 30 years straight.”
Crucially, the students have built a social media machine which, by their own count, includes some 900 influencers with a combined reach of more than 40 million followers.
The effect is visible on any ruling-party TikTok or X post, where the first dozen back-to-back comments, each with hundreds or even thousands of likes, repeat the campaign’s motto — “Studenti pobeđuju!” or the students will win.
If Student List is victorious in the elections, argues Novaković, it will face “a heavily entrenched system and bureaucracy, and that could be really demanding. The transition will not be easy.”
A win for Vučić and his party, meanwhile, would come with challenges of its own. “SNS and the government are heavily wounded,” he added. “Even if they don’t lose outright, they will face a period of weakened legitimacy and authority.”