The Student List (; abbr. SL) is an electoral list formed by the Students in Blockade, the student movement that led the anti-corruption protests following the Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse in November 2024, to contest the 2026 Serbian parliamentary election. First announced in May 2025, after the students demanded early elections, the list consists not of students but of 250 academics, professionals and public figures selected by student plenums, and is headed by cardiologist Ilija Srdanović.
The list runs as the citizens' group Student List – Students Are Winning (), founded on 9 September 2026, the day the election was called, and was proclaimed as number 3 on the ballot. Its programme, the 11-point "Student Plan", centres on the fight against corruption and organised crime, alongside social measures in education, housing and healthcare. Several parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition parties withdrew from the election to back the list. Pro-government media and some critics have questioned its independence from established opposition parties.
Background
On 1 November 2024, the canopy of the Novi Sad railway station collapsed, killing 16 people. This triggered a wave of protests. Students who joined the protests blockaded their faculties with four demands: the publication of all documentation on the canopy's renovation, criminal accountability for those who attacked students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts during a protest, the dropping of charges against students and demonstrators arrested at the 5 November 2024 protest in Novi Sad, and a 20% increase in university funding. A fifth and sixth demand were added in April 2025. Citing the government's failure to meet their demands, the students called for early parliamentary elections on 5 May 2025.
Formation
The idea of a separate list was announced in May 2025, shortly after the call for early elections. Amid public debate about how the opposition electorate should be mobilised and whether the students should run jointly with political parties, they said they would form their own independent list, which would not include students as candidates.
From protest movement to electoral list In the early phase of the protests, particularly until April 2025, the Students in Blockade stressed that they were not interested in elections or in who held power, and rejected coalitions or mergers with existing opposition parties. Contacts with parties were initially limited to coordinating protest demands and securing the release of detained activists, as the students sought to keep the movement above party politics. As the movement grew, the students came to be seen as the largest opposition force in the country.
Having decided to form their own list, the students entered talks with the opposition from a position of high public support. Rather than seeking places on party lists, they called on opposition parties not to run and to urge their voters to back the Student List instead. Months of talks and pressure, including appeals from the academic community and the civic initiative ProGlas, were accompanied by public disputes, such as a clash between the plenum of the Belgrade Faculty of Law and the New Democratic Party of Serbia. In September 2026, several opposition parties withdrew in favour of the Student List, while those that chose to run did not unite in a single opposition list (see Support).
Registration
The association Student List was registered with the Business Registers Agency on 21 May 2026 for a fixed term, valid until 1 May 2028. According to its Statute, it is a voluntary, non-governmental, non-partisan and non-profit association established for a fixed period to raise civic awareness of the importance of democracy and free and fair elections. Its goals include greater youth participation in democratic processes, monitoring elections and referendums, promoting the rule of law and freedom of speech, and holding those who break the law accountable.
The citizens' group Student List – Students Are Winning (SL – SP), through which the list formally contests the election, was founded on 9 September 2026, the day the snap parliamentary election was called. Its founders are Marija Maruna (professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade), Katarina Šćepanović (grammar school teacher and representative of the Forum of Belgrade Grammar Schools), Goran Perišić (worker) (worker at the Kolubara mining basin), Stanislav Milošević (teaching assistant at the Faculty of Mathematics in Belgrade), Aleksandar Čupić (research associate at the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences), Miljan Salata (architect), Milica Jovanović (teaching assistant) (teaching assistant at the Faculty of Organisational Sciences in Belgrade), Sanja Fric (assistant professor at the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Belgrade), Mirjana Nikolić (rector of the University of Arts in Belgrade), Radomir Saičić (professor at the Faculty of Chemistry in Belgrade and academician), Dušan Đurđević (professor at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Priština), Željko Hubač (dramaturge and journalist), Maja Crnogorac Đurić (social worker and representative of the organisation Preschool Circle) and Miroslav Andrić (assistant professor at the Faculty of Dentistry in Belgrade). All of them are also candidates on the list.
Decoy associations Shortly before the citizens' group was founded, three associations with names closely resembling that of the list were registered: "Students Are Winning", "Student List of Serbia – Students Are Winning" and "Student List of Belgrade – Students Are Winning". According to Vreme, all three were founded on 3 September 2026 by the same individual, with identical statutes and the same address in New Belgrade. The students described them as "fake associations" and said they suspected that the government would use them to submit decoy lists bearing the Student List's name, noting that recent changes to the electoral law allowed a single voter to sign in support of more than one list. They stressed that "Student List – Students Are Winning" was their only list.
Candidates Selection According to reports in May 2025, the selection process was to begin with students contacting potential candidates between 8 and 14 May 2025. Candidacies would then be submitted to faculty commissions, and candidates would present themselves to the student plenums and answer students' questions, after which a student electoral commission would hold a vote. The 250 places on the list were to be distributed among the five state universities and the colleges of applied studies roughly in proportion to their size, and the names kept secret until the elections were called. Candidates had to meet the following criteria:
# Criterion 1 Adult citizen of Serbia who has not been deprived of legal capacity 2 Respects the list's programme 3 Is not a student 4 Has never been a member of the Serbian Progressive Party 5 Is not an official of any opposition party 6 Has not been sentenced to more than one year in prison, nor convicted of an offence prosecuted ex officio carrying a sentence of more than three years
The student plenums also had the right to veto individual candidates. The secrecy surrounding the list led to extensive speculation throughout 2025 and 2026. Vladan Đokić, rector of the University of Belgrade, was frequently mentioned as a possible head of the list and said he was prepared to take part if the students chose him, but he was vetoed by a narrow majority in the plenums in September 2026. Others excluded included professor Milo Lompar, prosecutor Jasmina Paunović and activist Predrag Voštinić. The pro-government daily Politika reported that the plenums had vetoed dozens of potential candidates, which it presented as an effort to preserve the list's profile by excluding certain intellectuals and right-wing figures. Other names in media speculation included journalist Žaklina Tatalović and lawyers Zdenko Tomanović and Božo Prelević. In early September 2026, students said the full list of 250 candidates was ready and awaiting only the calling of elections.
Composition
The movement deliberately avoided appointing a conventional political leader, choosing its candidates through plenums and collective decision-making. The list is headed by cardiologist Ilija Srdanović, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad, and comprises 250 candidates, mostly academics, experts and public figures, including the 14 founders of the citizens' group. Other prominent candidates include Nemanja Đurić, president of the Judicial Authority Trade Union; professor Ljubica Oparnica; sociologist Jovo Bakić; political scientist Adem Mavrić; actors Tihomir Stanić and Dragan Jovanović; environmental activist Zlatko Kokanović; geologist Zoran Đajić; former basketball player and Euroleague Basketball president Dejan Bodiroga; former National Bank of Serbia governor Dejan Šoškić; and former athlete Mihail Dudaš.
Campaign The main principles of the students' programme were first presented at the "Slavija – You and Me" rally in Belgrade on 23 May 2026, with more detailed parts to be presented at public forums across Serbia. The campaign formally opened with a rally in Novi Sad on 10 September 2026, attended by around 6,000 people according to the Archive of Public Gatherings, at which the first 30 candidates were presented. Addressing the rally, grammar school teacher Katarina Šćepanović said that it was "the moment for togetherness, for association and solidarity among citizens".
After appealing to citizens in late August to lend premises for signature collection, the students submitted the list to the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) on 14 September, following a march through central Belgrade, with around 70,000 signatures. The full list of 250 candidates was published on the students' website the same day, with the students stating that the list has no leader. On 15 September, RIK certified 69,099 valid signatures, nearly seven times the legal threshold of 10,000, and proclaimed the list.
The students then presented their programme, the "Student Plan", on a tour of Serbia: in Vojvodina on 15 September, eastern Serbia on 16 September, western Serbia on 17 September, southern Serbia on 18 September, and Belgrade and central Serbia on 19 September.
Programme The programme was drafted over several months. In November 2025, student Vukašin Đinović said that it was being written in cooperation with experts from various fields, including farmers, doctors, teachers, social workers and cultural workers. During the campaign, some opposition parties and pro-government media called on the students to state their positions on issues such as Kosovo, Republika Srpska, European integration, economic and social policy, and foreign relations.
Student Plan The "Student Plan", presented on 15 September 2026, consists of 11 points divided into three sections, "Serbia or the Mafia", "Knowledge is Power" and "Serbia Grows with Us". The fight against crime and corruption is at its centre, alongside social measures such as free school textbooks and cheaper medicines. Its central promise has been described as a broad change in the way Serbia is governed. The 11 points are: