Aleksandar Vučić, the longtime nationalist and populist leader of Serbia, conceded defeat in the country’s parliamentary election while arguing that the student-led movement that won was backed by the same “deep American state” that works “against President Trump.”
Vučić made the announcement shortly after the polls closed on Sunday evening, saying, “Based on the stratified sample, it is clear that we have lost the election” to the Student List that was born from anti-government student protests.
“The Student List has won and will have between 135 and 140 seats, while we will have around 105,” the former president and prime minister added.
While he admitted he was beaten in the recent election, Vučić vowed to make a comeback.
“I love Serbia. I will never leave Serbia. From freedom and from prison, from any place, I will defeat them much faster than they think,” an English translation from the Clash Report reads:
“From tonight, we start preparing. We are going to defeat them,” Vučić told supporters from his podium after the preliminary results showed the opposition movement with a strong lead.
He continued, saying, “You will see in six months, no one will be happy and joyful anymore.”
Drawing a connection to broader European and U.S. politics, Vučić claimed that “What brought us down is this verified revolution, which they carried out with direct support from various European countries, and the deep American state, the one against President Trump.”
“I congratulate them, even though they are just executors of work. Executors of dirty work, which someone else designed to bring down a sovereign country,” he said. “For a moment you have succeeded. For how long, we shall see.”
Vučić had previously served as both president and prime minister of the Balkan state, with him resigning from presidential office in September after nearly a decade so he could run in the parliamentary election so he could again be prime minister, as he was from 2014 to 2017. He was Europe’s longest-serving leader outside of what used to be part of the Soviet Union.
As the leader and founding member of the Serbian Progressive Party — not to be confused with the American definition of “progressive” — he promoted Serbian nationalism, right-wing populism, and conservatism.
During a May exclusive interview, Vučić told Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle that President Donald Trump had “by far the biggest support” in Serbia compared to anywhere else in Europe, or even the most Republican states:
What I can say is I was surprised with some comments that were made in the press in the United States where some other European countries in the past were emphasized as strongholds of Donald Trump because it was very obvious for all of us that in Serbia he had by far the biggest support, speaking about the election campaign, and that support exceeded even at that time 75 percent of those that are determined of course — which was not the case, even in the United States. Nowhere else.
The Student List, also called Students Are Winning, is an electoral list supported by young Serbians that ran candidates for all 250 seats in the parliament, although none were students.
“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,” the BBC reported.
Lead candidate Ilija Srdanović, a cardiologist, told the outlet that “the energy is unstoppable” as he joined young protesters on their march towards Belgrade last week.
“We offer our citizens the core values of civilised society, which this previous regime has taken away from our citizens for the last time,” Srdanović explained.
Money from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was being sent to an organization supporting opponents of Vučić, with Breitbart News’s Matt Mercer reporting last week that a group behind the student-led protests had received nearly $1 million, with almost $3 million still due to them:
According to USASpending.gov, which houses the official open data source of federal spending including information about federal awards such as contracts, grants, and loans, an entity known as the Center for Research, Transparency, and Accountability (CRTA) has received $832,432.47 in funding with a total of $2.8 million still obligated.
CRTA is a non-governmental organization (NGO) known to be behind the student-led protests across Serbia. The group’s website tracks elections, media and public opinion, and published a list of “student demands” of the government.
While the Student List will gain control over the parliament, a nominee for prime minister has yet to be officially named. Srdanović is widely regarded as the leading candidate, though economics professor and former Serbian National Bank governor Dejan Šoškić is another prominent name.
After the new parliament convenes, the prime minister-designate must secure a majority vote in the National Assembly. In accordance with the Serbian constitution, the new parliament can take up to 90 days to structure the government.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.