Serbian populist strongman Vucic dominated all his opponents. Then the students came

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian populist strongman Aleksandar Vucic dominated the Balkan country’s politics for 14 years. Then came the students.

The longtime authoritarian leader on Sunday acknowledged the defeat of his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party by a grassroots movement of university students in parliamentary elections. Students led protests for nearly two years before overthrowing him in a historic change of government.

LEARN MORE: From France to Albania, how social unrest is fueling protests across Europe

The 56-year-old political veteran has easily dominated his political opponents in the past and believed he could do it again. Ahead of Sunday’s vote, he made a maneuver in the style of his ally Russian President Vladimir Putin when he resigned the presidency to try to become prime minister.

Vucic then launched a fierce campaign involving round-the-clock favorable coverage in state media and attacks on opponents. He handed out money to voters and promised higher pensions, new roads and cheaper medicine.

It didn’t work. The diverse youth movement’s message that widespread corruption, cronyism and organized crime under Vucic were eating away at the country resonated widely with voters.

Student protests began in 2024 after the collapse of a canopy at a renovated train station in northern Serbia killed 16 people, sparking allegations that corruption-fueled negligence led to poor construction work and ultimately the accident.

Defiantly, Vucic blamed his defeat on Sunday on foreign interference.

“I want people to know,” he said. “It was the verification of a revolution that they carried out directly with the support of different European countries and the American deep state, the one that is also against President (Donald) Trump.”

Vucic began his career as an ultranationalist

Over a political career spanning more than 30 years, Vucic went from an extremist nationalist who supported aggression against non-Serbs in the former Yugoslavia to a populist who shifted his preferences to balance global powers and influences.

During the wars of the 1990s, Vucic was one of the leaders of the radical party which advocated the creation of a “Greater Serbia” which would include the territories of Croatia and Bosnia where Serb minorities live. These policies are widely blamed for bloody conflicts that have killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions.

Vucic was known for his fiery speeches, including one before the Serbian parliament in which he declared that for every Serb killed in the Bosnian War, 100 Bosnian Muslims must die. He later said he didn’t mean it literally.

As information minister in the late 1990s, Vucic oversaw media outlets critical of then-President Slobodan Milosevic that were heavily fined or shut down. He moved from ultranationalism to a pro-European position proclaimed on the eve of his party’s electoral victory in 2012.

He embraced Europe for a time

In office, Vucic positioned himself as pro-European and pro-Russian, and as an admirer of Trump. However, ahead of the decisive vote, Vucic returned to his far-right roots and turned once again to Putin as he struggled to restore his shaken voter base.

Vucic defied the EU last month by allowing a hero’s funeral in Belgrade for Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army commander convicted of genocide by a UN tribunal in the Netherlands.

“It’s no coincidence that Vladimir Putin said he hoped I would be prime minister,” Vucic boasted days before the vote, abandoning the proclaimed pro-European stance that helped his populist party rise to power in 2012.

Vucic’s fall sparks varied reactions in Russia

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday expressed hope that the post-Vucic government would maintain friendly relations with Russia. Vucic had refused to join EU sanctions against Moscow over the war in Ukraine, although he formally asked Serbia to join the 27-nation bloc.

LEARN MORE: Serbs protest real estate project linked to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner

“We greatly appreciate Mr. Vucic’s contribution to the development of our bilateral relations,” Peskov said.

“We intend to continue to do everything possible to contribute to the development of our relations with Belgrade,” Peskov said. “But as you know, it takes two to tango.”

Konstantin Kosachev, deputy speaker of the upper house of the Federation Council, said the result of Serbia’s elections could indicate that “there would be one less sovereign country in Europe.”

But Konstantin Malofeyev, a hawkish tycoon who sponsors a virulent nationalist media outlet, welcomed Vucic’s defeat, denouncing him as a hypocrite who tried to maneuver between Russia and the West.

“The Serbian people have delivered a historic verdict against the Vucic regime,” Malofeyev said on his Telegram channel. “The era of political hypocrisy and duplicity is coming to an end.”

Vucic controlled Serbia for 14 years

Over the past 14 years, Vucic has served as deputy prime minister, prime minister and president.

As president for nearly 10 years, Vucic made the largely ceremonial post the center of power in the country. He was known for his frequent addresses to the nation and his appearances in pro-government media.

“He is a competitor who has mastered a technology of government based on sticks and carrots and on the idea that no one but him is right,” Dejan Pavlovic, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Belgrade, told the Associated Press recently.

Pavlovic described Vucic’s 14-year rule as a “school regime” of autocracy, with his party extending its control over the media, the judiciary and other institutions, leaving nothing to chance.

“Cover everything: control the media, control the judiciary, control all the institutions,” he explained.

Within the highly organized ruling SNS party, Vucic held supreme authority and loyalists were rewarded with lucrative state deals and protection from prosecution, Pavlovic said. Vucic, he said, “created a whole new elite in Serbian society and this elite knew how to be grateful.”

Vucic now says he will fight against the opposition again

Elections under Vucic were increasingly marred by reports of voting irregularities, violent incidents and complaints that his control of pro-government media and use of public funds to bribe voters gave his party an unfair advantage.

During the student protests, Vucic fenced off a central park in front of his office in Belgrade and set up tents with groups of supporters as an apparent human shield. Investigative journalists identified some of the camp residents as people with criminal backgrounds and linked Vucic to criminal clans, which he refuted.

Acknowledging defeat, Vucic vowed to keep fighting.

“Our structure is very firm, we are very united and strong, and we are used to being in opposition,” he said on Sunday evening.

Former president Boris Tadic believes that Vucic would not have given in in the event of a less convincing student victory. But in these circumstances, “he couldn’t avoid it.”