How Did Serbian Students Topple the Strongman Vucic? From the Belt and Road Station Tragedy and Two Years of Anti-Corruption Protests to the 2026 Student List Election Victory
This video tells the story of how Serbian students, through two years of protests and by launching the "Student List" in this year's elections—featuring people from all walks of life including workers, doctors, and lawyers—ultimately defeated the regime of strongman Aleksandar Vučić at the ballot box, while also exploring the issues of corruption and transparency behind the Belt and Road projects.
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Everyone, today I want to share a story with you: How did a group of students unseat a corrupt politician? This is what happened in Serbia, and it is also related to the Belt and Road. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) heavily bribes key politicians in Serbia, and they are especially close to the Vučić regime, which has very close ties to authoritarian politics, Putin, and Xi Jinping. Have you ever seen a case where a project was awarded without an open tender, specifically regarding the new Serbian railway? The Novi Sad railway station that they renovated collapsed directly after a period of time in 2024, causing the loss of over a dozen lives. Yet no one in the government stepped up to take responsibility; instead, they chose to cover it up. Look at Vučić—what he does is actually very similar to what Putin does. He was originally the prime minister, then became president. While president, he kept expanding presidential powers, and even planned to return to being prime minister after his presidential terms, but he lost in the election, losing to these students.
The students saw this lack of transparency—there was no competitive bidding, and the government kept covering things up, coupled with all sorts of corruption and pollution problems coming from Chinese-funded enterprises. These Chinese-funded enterprises took no responsibility for the Serbian people, and the politicians took no responsibility either; they were just exploiting the Serbian people all along. So the students came out to protest continuously for two years, constantly thinking: How can we change this evidence and reality now? And what was the result? They did not form a political party; instead, they put forward a list of candidates, and not a single person who participated in the student movement ran for office themselves. Instead, they nominated individuals who played the most crucial roles in society. So the list includes factory workers, doctors, lawyers, and ordinary opinion leaders working in companies. Therefore, this year, Vučić's party suffered a crushing defeat. He only won forty percent of the vote, while the Student List won over fifty percent.
Next, in the Serbian parliament, the majority of seats will be held by the nominees of the Student List. Their main platforms are fighting corruption and making Serbian media and society much more open and transparent. Meanwhile, the opposition within the traditional mainstream parties was completely unable to attract any votes. So today's story teaches us two things: democracy will still win after all; and secondly, the Belt and Road will only bring you losses. Down with the CCP, go Serbia!