Student-backed election winners demand sweeping resignations in Serbia

Serbia's victorious student-led movement has called for top figures in the police, intelligence and judiciary to stand down, days after ousting ex-president Aleksandar Vučić's party from power.

Standing in Pioneers' Park opposite parliament, newly elected MPs on the Student List demanded the immediate dismissal of all police officers who had broken the law, singling out the heads of the police, the BIA security agency and anti-terror unit.

It is not often a European country votes to fully reset its political system overnight, and Serbians have voted to hand the task to a group of novice politicians, made up of intellectuals, professors, artists, athletes and as many as 12 medical doctors and surgeons.

But the handover of power will take weeks, and the students' movement is concerned that evidence of possible wrongdoing could be destroyed in that time.

Just a few days ago, the park they were standing in on Thursday was a tent camp, filled with Vučić loyalists outside his office.

Within hours of him admitting defeat on Sunday night, the camp was dismantled, and a team of volunteers moved in on Monday morning to clean up the mess.

"This is just the first wave of spring cleaning, the new ones are coming now - we are very excited but ready to do it too," said Marija Milovanović, 25, as she scrubbed a park bench.

The student movement emerged from protests following the fatal collapse of a railway station canopy that killed 16 people in November 2024, in Serbia's second largest town Novi Sad.

Kaynak: BBC News World RSS (Açık Basın / Haber Servisi)