Vučić’s defeat in Serbia: What consequences could it have for the Serb List in Kosovo?

Following the defeat of Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Serbia, the Serb List has yet to make any public statement. The Student List secured victory in the election.

The Serb List, the largest political entity representing Serbs in Kosovo, was established in 2013 with the direct support of the SNS and Vučić. The latter acknowledged the defeat on the evening of October 25, but said the SNS had won “everywhere Serbs live in the region,” including Kosovo.

Preliminary data from Serbia’s Republican Electoral Commission show that at polling stations where Serbs from Kosovo voted, the “Aleksandar Vučić – United Serbia” list received around 71 percent of the vote. The Student List secured around 21 percent.

Across Serbia, the result was the opposite: the Student List received more than 52 percent of the vote, while “United Serbia,” led by former President Vučić, reached around 39 percent.

Ivan Vučković, an opposition representative of Kosovo Serbs from Leposavić, says these developments show that “nothing will be the same as before.”

“Freedom is coming to us from Belgrade,” he told Radio Free Europe (RFE).

Vučković and other Serb opposition representatives in Kosovo consider the Serb List and Vučić responsible for the worsening situation of the Serb community.

According to them, Serbia’s previous authorities, through the Serb List, “handed over” Serbia’s institutions and the powers previously controlled by Belgrade to Kosovo’s institutions.

Today, in Kosovo’s Serb-majority municipalities, only education and healthcare institutions continue to operate within Serbia’s system.

“After this great betrayal, as a result of which almost nothing has been left of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija, it will be very difficult,” says Vladimir Radosavleviq of Serb Democracy, a local opposition party from northern Kosovo.

What will happen to the Serb List?

Radio Free Europe sought comment from the Serb List after the publication of the first preliminary results in Serbia, but had received no response by the time this article was published.

In June’s elections in Kosovo, the party won nine of the ten seats reserved for the Serb community in the Assembly. The tenth mandate went to Nenad Rašić of the For Freedom, Justice and Survival party.

Rašić, who serves as a minister in Albin Kurti’s government, supported the Student Movement in Serbia’s elections.

He told RFE that cooperation between the Serb List and Serbia’s new authorities does not appear likely.

Rašić does not rule out the possibility that the Serbian Progressive Party could ask the Serb List to step down, calling on its representatives to resign from the positions they hold.

“This could be one possibility, but I do not expect them to act morally and do such a thing. They are in power at the local level because the SNS placed them in those positions by every means possible,” Rašić says.

The Serb List currently controls all ten Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo.

Its officials also run Serbia’s institutions in Kosovo. Among them is the chairman of the Serb List, Zlatan Elek, who heads the Clinical Hospital Center in North Mitrovica.

Ivan Vučković, an assembly member in the Leposavić Municipal Assembly, also believes that the Serb List cannot cooperate with Serbia’s new government.

“I am convinced that they will disintegrate in the coming days. On the other hand, they cannot function without Belgrade’s support,” he says.

Vladimir Radosavleviq, who is also an assembly member in Leposavić, in northern Kosovo, supports this assessment.

In his view, the Serb List cannot remain in power in Kosovo, because otherwise “the entire struggle would have been in vain.”

Radosavleviq’s party supported the Student List and the protests organized by students.

“As someone who has been with the students from the beginning, I know that they will never accept cooperation with the Serb List, the SNS’s stronghold in Kosovo. They were direct co-participants with Aleksandar Vučić in the great betrayal of Kosovo and Metohija. In short, their time is up, and they will soon be held accountable for everything they have done,” Radosavleviq told RFE.

Regarding the issue of Kosovo, the Student List has said it will act in accordance with Serbia’s Constitution, which defines Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia.

However, the Student List did not respond to Radio Free Europe’s questions about whether it intended to cooperate with the Serb List, including institutional cooperation, or what its position was on future relations with the Government of Kosovo.

What do Kosovo Serbs expect from the new authorities?

Ivan Vučković is seeking clarification on how funds sent by Serbia to Kosovo have been administered and claims that the Serb List has committed numerous abuses.

Serbia’s student political movement emerged from student protests focused on the fight against corruption.

Vučković believes that the fight against corruption should also be one of the new authorities’ priorities in relation to Kosovo, particularly regarding investments financed from Serbia’s budget in Serb-majority areas.

He also says that representatives of the Serb List “may seek political asylum in Kosovo,” because he believes they could face charges for numerous criminal offenses in Serbia.

“I am certain that there will also be a change of power here [in Kosovo],” he says.

Vučković does not expect major changes regarding Serbia’s powers in Kosovo. However, he hopes that the new authorities in Belgrade will intervene to protect the Serbian institutions that remain.

“So that we can count on Serbia’s support financially, in the most realistic and fairest way. Some things have simply come to an end, but I hope the new authorities will manage to correct some of the previous government’s mistakes regarding who runs the institutions, as well as support and the distribution of funds,” Vučković says.

Vladimir Radosavleviq expects Serbia’s new leadership to show greater understanding toward Kosovo Serbs and give them a greater role in decision-making on issues affecting their lives.

“So that we can decide our own fate,” he says.

“The Student List does not need to do anything extraordinary. It is enough to appoint capable leaders and stop the theft of hundreds of millions of euros that end up in private pockets every year instead of going to the Serb areas in Kosovo. This would significantly reduce the departure of Serbs from Kosovo, which has reached alarming proportions,” Radosavleviq says.

Milliqeviq: Serbia’s new authorities will review the role of the Serb List

Miodrag Milliqeviq, director of the Aktiv nongovernmental organization, emphasizes that, formally and legally, the Serb List is part of Kosovo’s political system. For this reason, the election results in Serbia do not directly change its status.

However, he says, the situation is different in practice, as the Serb List has operated as a branch of the Serbian Progressive Party in Kosovo.

The change of power in Belgrade, he believes, will raise new questions about how the party will function in the future.

“In terms of policy, there will be room for a fundamental review. I am not referring to restructuring the Serb List, but to a fundamental review of policy toward Kosovo that will also include representatives of the Serb List. The question will arise as to whether they abused their positions within the Serbian system while the Serbian Progressive Party was in power,” says Miliçeviq.

He believes that Kosovo is not among the Student List’s main concerns, but expects some of its structures to engage with the issue.

According to Milliqeviq, in recent years Belgrade has left Kosovo Serbs in a state of legal and security uncertainty.

Serb civil society in Kosovo had opposed the Serb List’s initiative to withdraw Serbs from Kosovo’s institutions in 2022.

It had also criticized the actions of Kosovo’s government, which it described in most cases as unilateral and discriminatory.

In 2024, Kosovo’s government began closing Serbia’s institutions and announced that it intended to integrate Serbian healthcare and education institutions into Kosovo’s system. The justification was that the operation of two parallel systems could not continue.

Meanwhile, the international community has called for such steps to be taken through dialogue and in consultation with the Serb community. / RFE