Serbian student protests vow to field own presidential candidate

Student demonstrators in Serbia, mobilised after the Nov. 1, 2024 collapse of a railway station roof in Novi Sad that killed 16 people, announced they will nominate their own candidate for the presidency when elections are called. Representative Cheda Alexic told the N1 programme “Beyond the News” that no name has been chosen yet, but the movement intends to win future parliamentary and presidential contests.

The protest movement, which grew into one of the country’s largest public mobilisations, is training a network of election observers, drawing on experience from local elections held earlier this year in ten municipalities. Alexic criticised the electoral law as ineffective in practice and positioned the students as a strong political factor capable of “tsunami” effects.

He also responded to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s recent call for Serbia to decide its future, directing the message at the ruling party that has promised EU integration for 14 years. The students plan a gathering in Novi Sad to present their ideas, and note that in May 2025 they first demanded early parliamentary elections, a request President Aleksandar Vučić rejected.