\n<\/p>\n
They have no obvious leaders and have no grounding in politics, and yet the “Student List-Students Win” movement attracted anti-government voters across Serbian society.<\/p>\n
They fielded candidates for all 250 parliamentary seats, and yet no students were among them.<\/p>\n
As he joined the students marching towards Belgrade last week, lead candidate and cardiologist Ilija Srdanovi\u0107 said history was being rewritten: “The energy is unstoppable.”<\/p>\n
“We offer our citizens the core values of civilised society, which this previous regime has taken away from our citizens for the last time,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n
It all began on 1 November 2024, when the concrete canopy collapsed outside Novi Sad train station, in Serbia’s second biggest city, killing 16 people.<\/p>\n
The tragedy was seen as emblematic of widespread corruption. Critics linked the station’s fatally flawed renovation to a president who had closely associated himself with the project.<\/p>\n
“When the canopy collapsed that served as the last straw,” says Helena Ivanov of the think tank the Henry Jackson Society. <\/p>\n
It was an emotional moment that triggered a spark and a national campaign of marches and events, she said, that captured the hearts and minds of Serbians in a way no opposition party had been able to do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n