Serbia’s student movement holds final rally before election

Serbia’s student-led movement held its final campaign rally in Belgrade on Thursday, three days before a parliamentary election that pits its Student List against the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. President Aleksandar Vučić held a separate closing rally in the capital as both sides sought support ahead of Sunday’s vote, scheduled for October 25. The students’ gathering centered on Slavija Square, where supporters marched in from across the city. Accounts of the crowd’s size varied: one described hundreds of thousands, while another reported thousands by early evening and said the crowd was still growing. The reports did not establish a definitive attendance count. Vučić addressed several thousand supporters at a sports hall elsewhere in Belgrade. He predicted that his party would win by several hundred thousand votes, while acknowledging that the contest would be difficult and uncertain. He has accused the student movement of receiving foreign support or instructions, allegations that were not independently established in the reporting. The election follows nearly two years of student-led protests that began after a canopy collapsed at Novi Sad railway station on November...