Theme: Serbia

Serbian authorities detained nine active police officers and one former officer for allegedly using excessive force against detainees during last year’s anti-corruption protests in Belgrade, according to Reuters, in a text republished by The Straits Times. The Interior Ministry said the suspects, from an elite unit, tortured and intimidated people detained in the garage of a government compound in downtown Belgrade on August 14-15, 2025. According to the statement, by using force and threats they inflicted great pain and severe suffering on a larger number of people to obtain information from them and to intimidate and unlawfully punish them. These were the first major arrests in connection with violence against the protesters who took to the streets over the past two years, and the ministry released only the detainees’ initials. The protests swept the country, a candidate for European Union (EU) membership, in 2025 and 2026, after 16 people died when a concrete canopy collapsed at a renovated railway station in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024.

Serbia is going through a wave of arrests and resignations after the Student List won the parliamentary elections on October 25 and Aleksandar Vučić left power for the first time in over a decade. The Student List won 140 of the 250 seats in parliament but, without a clear leadership structure, may take some time to form a government. On November 1, Marko Kricak, head of the Criminal Police Directorate, and Bosko Sekulovic, a police commander tasked with fighting organized crime, were arrested on charges of abusing their positions as part of an investigation into a complex murder case in May. On November 2, Davor Macura, owner of Alta Bank, was arrested in Belgrade after the bank had its license revoked by the National Bank of Serbia on October 30. Manja Grcic, director of the public broadcaster RTS, dismissed the head of the news department on October 28 and resigned the same day under pressure from employees and representatives of the student protest movement. Vučić told TV Pink he is not afraid of a possible arrest because there will be no evidence against him.

Serbia’s electoral commission released the final results from 100% of polling stations in the snap parliamentary elections: victory for the Student List movement with 53.01% of the vote. On Monday, the Republic Election Commission (RIK) had released a partial count with 52.54% of the vote for the Student List, based on 8,077 of 8,392 polling stations counted.

Serbian authorities arrested the head of the country’s criminal police directorate on suspicion of abuse of office and denied the detention was linked to the elections held a week earlier, Al Jazeera reported. Prosecutor Nenad Stefanovic said, according to the outlet, that the two detainees are suspected of abusing their offices and failing to perform their duties.

Voting in Serbia’s October 25, 2026, parliamentary elections will be repeated this Sunday, November 1, at 53 polling stations, by decision of the Election Commission (RIK), taken at a session the previous night in Belgrade. A total of 24,438 voters have the right to cast ballots at these stations, and the commission unanimously approved the printing of 24,438 ballots for the repeat vote.

Serbia’s incoming leadership plans to hold talks with Russia to negotiate a long-term natural gas supply agreement. According to the Russian broadcaster RT, Russia is Serbia’s dominant natural gas supplier, accounting for up to 90% of its imports in 2025.

Serbia's student movement demanded on Thursday the resignations of top officials in the police, intelligence agencies and the judiciary as it prepares to take power after last weekend's election win against former strongman leader Aleksandar Vucic, according to AP News. The students also urged the country's election authorities to officially declare the final results without delay after a rerun at some 50 polling stations next Sunday.

Serbian police killed an attacker outside the Israeli embassy in Belgrade on Wednesday after an officer was targeted in a “terrorist attack”, outgoing Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said, according to Le Monde. Dacic said the terrorism threat level had been raised to its highest, the “red alert”, which means tighter security checks and an increased police presence at sensitive sites, including infrastructure facilities and places where large crowds gather.

Protesters stormed a Serbian television station supportive of former President Aleksandar Vucic after his loss at the polls, Al Jazeera reported. With 97% of polling stations counted, the election commission said the students had won 2.25 million votes and the former ruling party 1.67 million, the BBC reported.

The Student List, which won Sunday's parliamentary election in Serbia with 52.73 percent of the vote in preliminary results, will not impose sanctions on Russia, its representative Jovo Bakic told RT Balkan. According to him, the new government will keep its longstanding ties with Moscow despite EU pressure.

Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat to the student-led protest movement in Sunday’s parliamentary election, according to Reuters. He said the Student List would have between 135 and 140 seats and his bloc 105. The election commission indicated a record turnout, which commentators had suggested would favor the student movement, according to the BBC.

Former Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić warned that the bloc that won the snap election would impose sanctions on Russia as early as March or April, according to Sputnik.

Serbian leader Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat to the student-led protest movement in the country’s snap parliamentary election, the BBC reported. Confirmation of the result came from Vučić himself: Russia’s state-run TASS reported the Students’ List victory in the snap election, citing the Serbian leader. Le Monde also reported the concession of defeat.

Serbia voted on Sunday with queues of two to three hours at the country’s embassy in London and long lines in Belgrade, according to the Guardian. The EU ambassador to Serbia, Andreas von Beckerath, said the bloc was “deeply concerned about reported violent incidents” at a number of polling stations. US Republican senator Joe Wilson said Serbians were turning out “in historic numbers” and that he was concerned by reports the government might be preparing to use violence against citizens to obstruct the vote. The paper frames the election as the sternest test of Aleksandar Vučić’s 12-year grip on power.

Serbia heads to the polls in legislative elections that pit longtime leader Aleksandar Vucic against a student anti-corruption movement, according to Al Jazeera. Polls show Vucic in a tight race against the anticorruption and anti-authoritarian movement, the outlet reports. The vote leaves Vucic facing the threat of electoral defeat, Le Monde writes.

The BBC World Service identified 56 Facebook pages that published at least 90 paid political ads between mid-September and mid-October, ahead of Serbia’s snap parliamentary election, targeting the student movement and carrying unsubstantiated accusations against political opponents. All the ads were paid in Romanian leu, totalling at least 29,437 lei by October 16, although Serbian law bans foreign funds in political advertising, and at least three were paid by a Romanian company, according to the BBC.

Serbia votes on Sunday in an early parliamentary election seen as a referendum on the countryʼs future, after two years of student protests, according to the BBC. The main threat to Aleksandar Vučićʼs 12 years in power comes from the Student List-Students Win movement, with no defined leaders and outside the traditional parties, also according to the BBC.

Aleksandar Vucic, who resigned as president of Serbia on September 27, promised he would not impose sanctions against Russia and would not recognize Kosovo’s independence, according to TASS. Snap parliamentary elections in Serbia will be held on October 25, with Vucic leading the Progressive Party list as its candidate for prime minister, also according to TASS.

Tens of thousands of supporters of Serbia’s student-led opposition movement gathered in central Belgrade for their final rally ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election, in which they hope to oust the party of veteran leader Aleksandar Vucic. The vote follows nearly two years of student-led protests triggered by the 2024 collapse of a canopy at a newly renovated railway station in Novi Sad that killed 16 people.

The student movement Student List, which has kept up constant protests in Serbia for two years, is fielding 250 candidates in Sunday’s parliamentary election and, according to the Guardian, poses the most serious challenge Aleksandar Vučić has faced in 12 years in power that the paper describes as increasingly authoritarian. Vučić stepped down as president last month, five months before the end of his second and last term under the constitution, with the aim of extending his hold on power as prime minister at the head of his Serbian Progressive party (SNS).

The phone of the University of Belgrade rector, Vladan Djokic, was infected in 2026 with Pegasus spyware from the NSO Group, according to a report by the SHARE Foundation reported by CyberScoop. Djokic is a prominent figure in the country’s student protest movement, and Rade Bajic, a lawyer with Serbia’s Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime, was also targeted, according to the research.

Aleksandar Vucic, who resigned as Serbia’s president on September 27, said at a pre-election rally that the country will continue to defend its national interests and will not relinquish its traditional friendly ties with Russia, according to TASS. Snap parliamentary elections will be held on October 25, and Vucic will lead the ruling Serbian Progressive Party’s list and become its candidate for prime minister.

Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vucic, resigned from office, stating that he wants to run in the upcoming parliamentary elections as an ordinary citizen. He announced he would hand over his duties the following morning to National Assembly Speaker Ana Brnabic, who will serve as acting president. The resignation follows more than a year of student-led protests and growing public discontent over allegations of government corruption, according to the BBC.

Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vucic, resigned on Sunday to pursue the prime minister’s post in an upcoming early parliamentary election, according to the AP. The election, the outlet said, will test his firm rule in the Balkan country after nearly two years of protests. The snap election is set for October 25, and a student-led movement is mounting the most serious challenge to his rule in more than a decade, according to Al Jazeera.

Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, resigned to pursue an attempt to become prime minister in an upcoming early parliamentary election, according to The Guardian. Serbia’s constitution bans him from seeking a third term, and he said he was leaving the presidency to lead his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in the 25 October ballot. Vučić signed the resignation letter in an address to the nation and will head the SNS list as its candidate for prime minister, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.

Vladimir Putin and his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, have discussed the situation around the Ukrainian conflict and the situation in the Balkans in a telephone conversation, according to TASS. Serbia hopes to secure another extension of its gas deal with Russia, Vucic said Saturday after a call with Putin, according to Euractiv. The gas arrangement expires on September 30, and Vucic said he believes that, following today’s conversation, it will be extended and that Serbia will secure stable gas supplies.