SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Students across Europe have been taking to the streets in protest. In Serbia, they're taking their movement to the ballot box, with a list of candidates ranging from academics and economists to athletes and engineers who are running in Sunday's parliamentary elections. They hope to end 14 years of rule by a populist leader in the Serbian Progressive Party. Guy De Launey reports from Serbia's capital, Belgrade.
GUY DE LAUNEY, BYLINE: Tens of thousands of people are gathering here at Slavija Square in the center of Serbia's capital, Belgrade. They're turning out for the final pre-election rally of the Student List. That's the opposition movement, which emerged from the long-running student-led protests. Now it's posing the most serious challenge to Serbia's long-serving leader, Aleksandar Vucic, since his Progressive Party took power in 2012.
MIHAIL DUDAS: I want people to be free - to be free to say whatever they want, to be free to talk about the political situation, to talk about the solutions.
LAUNEY: Mihail Dudas represented Serbia in the decathlon at two Olympic Games. Now he's among the people running for parliament on the Student List.
DUDAS: I am very honored to be selected to be in 250 very, very smart, good, powerful people who are ready to basically change the direction in - for Serbia in the right direction.
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LAUNEY: Around 150,000 people attended the Student List rally this week, marking the culmination of a protest movement that started two years ago. That's when a concrete canopy collapsed at the recently renovated railway station in Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city. Sixteen people died, and the disaster sparked student-led protests accusing Aleksandar Vucic of presiding over endemic corruption. He'd made infrastructure improvements a key part of his image as the strong leader steering Serbia into the future. So the station disaster has been hard for him to shake off.
MAGDA ANASTASIJEVIC: The government expected the protests to die down after the initial spark.
LAUNEY: Magda Anastasijevic is the Eastern Europe analyst for the conflict monitor ACLED.
ANASTASIJEVIC: Vucic has survived this in the past. He was always find a - able to find a scapegoat and blame whatever problems on them. This was not the case for the canopy.
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LAUNEY: In the home of the student protest movement, the pre-election atmosphere seems calm.
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LAUNEY: The young people studying here in Novi Sad have been collaborating with colleagues around the country to choose the candidates for the Student List. They didn't put themselves forward. They deliberately selected candidates with no background in politics.
VUK STOJIC: We are offering something new, something different.
LAUNEY: Vuk Stojic is a law student at Novi Sad University. He's one of the activists who've been involved in selecting the candidates for the parliamentary elections.
STOJIC: This is not only a student movement. It's a movement of all the free-thinking people in Serbia. And that's what gave us strength.
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UNIDENTIFIED RALLYGOERS: (Chanting in Serbian).
LAUNEY: At pre-election rallies, Aleksandar Vucic has brushed off his critics' accusations of autocratic tendencies. He resigned as president last month because he couldn't serve a third term, and he's now hoping to stay in power as prime minister.
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UNIDENTIFIED RALLYGOERS: (Chanting in Serbian).
LAUNEY: International monitors of previous elections have noted that Vucic's dominates the media and uses state resources for its own benefit. Many Serbians have been willing to overlook that as long as they accepted Vucic's carefully curated image as the protector of Serbia's interests. The Novi Sad disaster has undoubtedly damaged that, but Vucic remains defiant.
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ALEXSANDAR VUCIC: (Speaking Serbian).
LAUNEY: "We're going out there to win," he tells the crowd at this rally in Novi Sad. "We're going out there to defeat them, and we're going to deliver our biggest landslide victory yet."
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LAUNEY: The Student List and the tens of thousands backing it beg to differ. For the first time in 14 years, Serbia's election looks uncertain.
For NPR News, I'm Guy De Launey in Belgrade, Serbia. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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