Serbian strongman Aleksandar Vucic, a nationalist who has cultivated ties to Donald Trump and Vladmir Putin and has downplayed his country’s 1990s war crimes, conceded defeat in elections Sunday to a slate of candidates backed by a student-led anti-corruption movement.
asserted
who → cultivate → movement
The result has broad similarities to Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar’s April defeat of longtime Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
asserted
result → have → Orbán
Vucic, like Orban, ginned up nationalist sentiments and worked to link his cause to Trump’s.
asserted
Vucic → gin → Trump
Serbia, following in Hungary’s footsteps, plans to host a gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference this year.
asserted
Serbia → follow → Conference
Far-right influencers from the US flocked to Belgrade in recent days to support Vucic.
asserted
influencers → flock → Vucic
He has enjoyed support from MAGA figures like Donald Trump Jr, who last year used his podcast to conduct a fawning interview with the Serbian president.
asserted
who → enjoy → president
And Vucic has employed Trumpworld lobbyists who have described Serbs as “pro-Trump Christians”—a characterization that distinguishes them from the Muslims in nearby Bosnia and Kosovo who suffered under past Serbian aggression.
asserted
who → employ → aggression
Vucic in recent years has backed away from acknowledging Serbian war crimes in the 1990s.
asserted
Vucic → back → 1990s
Last month he allowed Ratko Mladic—a Serb general convicted of genocide by an international tribunal for overseeing the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which more than 8,000 Bosnians were executed—to be buried with military honors in the Serbian capital.
asserted
Bosnians → allow → capital
Vucic also reportedly pressed government officials to help advance a plan pushed by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, to build a $500 million hotel complex in Belgrade, in what Serbian critics called an illegal effort to placate the American president’s family.
uncertain
critics → press → family
Vucic has dominated Serbian politics since 2012, serving previously as both president and prime minister, the job he was attempting to return to after stepping down from the presidency last month and calling a snap election.
asserted
he → dominate → election
Many analysts believed that amid democratic backsliding in Serbia, Vucic would retain power.
asserted
Vucic → believe → power
But instead, amid massive turnout, Vucic lost in an apparent landslide, setting off wild celebrations in Belgrade.
asserted
Vucic → lose → Belgrade
“It is clear that we have lost these elections,” Vucic said in public remarks even as results were still being tallied.
asserted
results → lose → remarks
Vucic has attempted to tie his opponents to European and American leftists, claiming George Soros and western NGOs were funding his critics.
asserted
Soros → attempt → critics
But the Serbian opposition, though widely seen as more pro-Europe than Vucic, is not clearly leftist, or ideologically coherent.
asserted
opposition → see → Vucic
The student movement emerged from mass protests that began in November 2024 after the collapse of a concrete canopy at a train station that killed 15 people.
asserted
that → emerge → people
Critics have blamed the disaster on alleged corruption by government officials that allowed shoddy work by contractors.
asserted
that → blame → contractors
This year, the student movement selected political novices, including academics, trade union officials, and artists as parliamentary candidates.
asserted
movement → select → candidates
The opposition slate avoided breaking with Vucic on Kosovo, which many Serbs still resent losing following NATO intervention in 1999, and did not adopt a detailed agenda.
asserted
Serbs → avoid → agenda
That was an part of a successful effort to make the election a referendum on Vucic and corruption in the country.
asserted
election → make → country
That makes the Serbian election another bad sign for Donald Trump.
asserted
election → make → Trump
The Aporia
