The Student List held its final campaign rally, titled “Victory Calling,” at central Belgrade’s Slavija Square, drawing a massive crowd of supporters.
The Archive of Public Gatherings said that there were about 150,000 people at the final Student List campaign event in Belgrade’s central Slavija Square on Thursday evening.
Both the square itself and all the intersecting streets leading into it were packed with people who gathered to support the Student List - running under ballot number 3 (“Students Win”) - in the upcoming elections scheduled for Sunday, October 25.
Natalija Stepanovic, a student at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, was the first speaker at the rally. She reminded the crowd that this marked the fifth time that members of the public have gathered at this square.
She said the first rally was held in December 2024, a month and a half after the Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse, when they hoped that student demands would be met within a month or two. Since then, 22 months have passed, and during marches across Serbia, students have seen firsthand that many people want change, Stepanovic added.
She also noted that at the rally in June 2025, they had demanded elections. “That was the first step toward our collective victory,” she said.
“The endless circle of Slavija and all of us inside it... It is time to break out of the roundabout of history. There are only three days left, and those three days will pass. The fear, the blackmail, and the injustice will pass, and tyrants will pass, just as they always do. But the people of this country will never pass; they will stand as a monument to one another, a monument to our shared struggle,” Stepanovic emphasized.
“We meet again at the same place, at the same time. At the spot where it all began nearly two years ago. We still stand proud, and we are sending you a clear message - Serbia cannot be frightened, Serbia must be liberated,” said Arsa Stojanovic, a student at the Faculty of Biology. He assured the gathered crowd that victory is right there, “within your reach.”
“We have marched across the length and breadth of Serbia, visited villages and neighborhoods, looked you in the eye, and realized that we can count on you,” the student said.
Candidates from the Student List also addressed the crowd, presenting the list’s platforms on the judiciary, education, healthcare, agriculture, the economy, labor rights, the environment, media, and Kosovo and Metohija.
“A parliamentary seat is a public service. Whoever wins it must know who they answer to. We know who we will answer to! The mandate belongs to all of you - to the people! Serbia wins because the students win,” said Ilija Srdanovic, the lead candidate on the Student List.
Before Srdanovic’s speech, a fireworks display lit up the area, and the number three was projected onto neighboring building facades. The crowd chanted, “He’s finished,” the student movement’s slogan “Pump it up,” and “Victory.”
All the speakers at the rally held copies of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia in their hands.
“It reminds me of March 15 and it smells like freedom,” one rally participant told an N1 reporter. “There are even more people here than on March 15,” another gentleman noted.
(A massive student-led protest was held on March 15, 2025 at Slavija Square. According to the Public Assemblies Archive, between 275,000 and 325,000 people attended.)
Toward the end of the final campaign event at Slavija Square, Student List supporters danced the traditional circle dance “kolo,” while organizers took to the stage to thank the massive crowd.
The students expressed their gratitude to the public for their support, concluding with the message: “Long live students, long live freedom, long live Serbia!”
