Story perspectives

Students’ List Challenges Vucic After 44.5% Poll Win

By Drooid · Oct 22, 2026, 3:47 PM UTC · How we work

Summary

Story summary

Students’ List fielded 250 candidates to contest incumbent Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party in the Oct 25 2026 parliamentary election.
The movement has no single leader, decides policies in faculty assemblies, and rotates representatives for security.
A New Serbian Political Thought poll on Oct 20 gave Students’ List 44.5 % support versus 42.7 % for Vucic’s party.
Digital-rights groups confirmed Pegasus spyware hacked phones of at least 14 student activists and university officials.

History

Historical Context

In 2016, Israel’s NSO Group released the Pegasus spyware, quickly selling it to dozens of governments worldwide and sparked international debate over privacy. By 2020, Amnesty International documented at least 1,400 Pegasus infections across 45 countries, including Serbia’s Ministry of Education, and raised concerns among civil-society groups. Similarly, the 2026 Serbian Students’ List faces Pegasus intrusions on 14 activists, echoing the earlier pattern of state-linked digital repression. These precedents warn that surveillance can tilt electoral contests, prompting EU watchdogs, the European Commission and the European Parliament in 2025, to draft cyber-espionage regulations.

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Story summary

Students’ List fielded 250 candidates to contest incumbent Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party in the Oct 25 2026 parliamentary election.
The movement has no single leader, decides policies in faculty assemblies, and rotates representatives for security.
A New Serbian Political Thought poll on Oct 20 gave Students’ List 44.5 % support versus 42.7 % for Vucic’s party.
Digital-rights groups confirmed Pegasus spyware hacked phones of at least 14 student activists and university officials.

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