Sunday 25 October has proven to be a day of light.
Earlier in the day, Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić, the country’s longstanding right-wing Populist strongman and ally of Hungary’s Viktor Orban who was himself ousted from power only six months ago, conceded defeat in Belgrade to the Student List. Vučić called a snap poll in Serbia to try and defeat the grassroots protest movement which emerged in November 2024 after a concrete canopy collapsed at a rail station in Novi Sad killing 16 people. The disaster shone a spotlight on political corruption and state neglect sparking a wave of anti-government anger and protest across the country.
Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) was hoping to lead Serbia into the EU though it backs Vladimir Putin against Ukraine. The government controlled much of the press and TV and also tried to sideline the movement led by the Student List. The police used force against protests across the country but the movement which saw protests in 400 different villages, towns and cities, was irrepressible. The protest movement didn’t flag in the last two years despite facing repression: there were road blockades, marches, mass cycling protests, picketing of state controlled TV and radio and during the election a mass campaign that focused on making Serbia free from authoritarianism.
Serbia’s national poll was marked by a record turnout including Serbs voting abroad in significant numbers. The Student List whose grassroots movement had constantly campaigned and protested across Serbia since 2024, stood on a manifesto of clean government, anti-corruption, preventing politicians nesting in the state and leading enterprises while ending political control of public media. Victory sparked euphoria and joy in the country and the Student List will now face the challenge of taking Serbia on a different path to the dark path the SNS had led the country since 2012.
The Student List’s win in Serbia is a welcome chink of light in the gloom of our moment but Lula and the Workers Party (PT) triumph against the far right in Brazil was hoped for but unexpected. Lula’s astonishing triumph against Flávio Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro (imprisoned for trying to organise a coup against Lula), is his fourth victory and was unexpected because he is the first Presidential candidate to win the final round which fields two candidates, after finishing second in the first round. Lula, the incumbent President, won more than 4 million extra votes compared to Bolsonaro after voting was extended by two extra hours by the Supreme Court (both candidates requested the extension).
The higher turnout in the final round favoured Lula – it appears Brazilian voters ‘woke up’ to the threat posed by Bolsonaro and the far right while the 80 year old former steel worker, trade unionist who grew up in extreme poverty, flipped one state (Minas Gerais) and moved from second to first in 211 municipalities including Rio De Janeiro.
Lula will continue to face formidable challenges including a hostile congress but today the sun rose on the fight against the global far right and the fight to avert climate breakdown delivering that unnatural social-historical ‘state of nature’ that hypermodern, authoritarian late capitalism will deliver if we allow it.
Paths and Bridges 26 // 10 // 2026
The Student List triumphs in Serbia.
