By Darryl Coote & Rob Johnson UPI | Posted by TOE

Serbia’s longtime nationalist leader Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat Sunday in snap parliamentary elections to a student-led opposition movement.

Citing preliminary results that showed his right-wing party trailing, Vucic told supporters at the headquarters of his Serbian Progressive Party that it was “clear that we have lost these elections,” he said, according to a statement from his party.

“We don’t have the final results. Many will be surprised, and you will realize how much some people have lied and what they have fabricated. I want to inform you that the student-led protest list has won.”

The concession came after a record number of voters cast their ballot, with local pollsters and monitors putting turnout at 67.6%, the highest since the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1992.

Vucic has been in office for 12 years.

The defeat of Vucic, who resigned as president Sept. 27 to seek a return to the prime minister’s office, which he held from 2014 to 2017, followed two years of student-led protests.

According to projections by the independent election-monitoring organization Center for Free Elections and Democracy, the Student List was expected to win 140 seats in the 250-seat parliament and Vucic’s SNS won 103 seats, with a handful of minority parties winning the remaining seven seats, Serbian news agency FoNet reported.

Radomir Saicic, an academic and a Student List candidate, celebrated the results Sunday night at the movement’s headquarters in New Belgrade.

“This is a victory of courage over fear, a victory of hope over indifference, a victory of faith that Serbia can and must be different,” he said, Beta news agency reported.

“Thank you for every step, every hour, every sacrifice and every moment in which you chose not to give up. Thank you to everyone who raised their voice, who stood together and who showed that the future of this country does not belong to a select few, but to all its citizens.”

The snap election was called on Sept. 9, when Vucic dissolved parliament amid nearly two years of anti-government protests by students initially angry over the deaths of 16 people in the Nov. 1, 2024, collapse of a concrete canopy at Novi Sad railway station, viewing the incident as the product of government corruption and negligence.

The election results could have significant implications for the Balkan nation.

Under Vucic’s rule, the country maintained close relations with Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin had publicly expressed support for Vucic’s run for the premiership. While the Student List campaigned on Serbia maintaining its stance against imposing sanctions against Russia, it also expressed support Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

The victory could also signal closer ties with the European Union, although the Student List has pledged to maintain Serbia’s traditional relations with Russia. Serbia has been a candidate for EU membership since 2012, but negotiations have largely stalled since 2021 under Vucic’s leadership.

“Today, the people of Serbia turned out in record numbers to shape their country’s future. Congratulations to the Student List on its victory in the parliamentary elections,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

“We stand ready to support reforms on the rule of law, media freedom, the fight against corruption and strong democratic institutions, and to work together to advance Serbia’s future in the European Union.”

Marta Kos, EU commissioner for enlargement, said the election means “a new chapter can begin for Serbia.”

“After nearly two years of protests for democracy, the rule of law and the fight against corruption, Serbians turned out in historic numbers,” she said online, saying, “These are the very values at the heart of the European Union.”

“The door to the EU is open, and we are ready to move forward together.”