The Japan Times - Aleksandar Vucic: Serbia's veteran ruler felled by student-led movement

For supporters, the 56-year-old represented stability, development and patriotism in a country scarred by the bloody wars of the 1990s and ensuing international isolation.

But opponents saw him as an increasingly authoritarian figure, twisting between the Kremlin and Brussels and leading a government accused of endemic corruption.

Vucic conceded his party had lost after voters cast ballots in record numbers in Sunday's vote, defeated by a new political force that emerged from a years-long protest movement.

"Based on a stratified sample, it is clear that we lost these elections," Vucic told supporters at his party headquarters in Belgrade.

- Political turnaround -

Vucic rose to prominence in the 1990s as an ultra-nationalist ally of Milosevic, serving as his information minister in 1998.

After protests ousted the Yugoslav strongman in 2000, Vucic became a senior figure in the far-right Serbian Radical Party.

He was then a vocal supporter of Bosnian Serb political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, both later sentenced to life for genocide and other crimes committed during the Bosnian war.

But Vucic underwent a dramatic rebrand in 2008, co-founding the conservative, pro-European Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which won parliamentary elections in 2012 and has dominated Serbian politics since.

He served as deputy prime minister, defence minister and prime minister before becoming president in 2017.

Even after polishing his image, Vucic has been reluctant to distance himself from nationalist leanings and far-right associates.

He has stopped short of condemning Serbs convicted of atrocities during the 1990s conflicts and looked the other way as pro-government media and political allies openly praised war criminals.

Despite trying to deny state involvement in a large funeral gathering for Mladic in the Serbian capital last month, several of his ministers attended, drawing sharp criticism from Brussels.

- 'Land of cranes' -

A relentless campaigner, he maintained a near-constant presence on pro-government television channels, embracing locals in tiny rural villages and chastising critics during lengthy news conferences.

He has cultivated the image of a tireless leader criss-crossing Serbia, attracting investment and creating jobs.

At the same time, he has juggled the competing interests of European Union aspirations and Serbia's close ties to Russia.

Supporters praised him as a brave defender of Serbian sovereignty, spending billions of euros on defence -- as he warned of foreign influence and pressure from NATO-member neighbours.

He often cited Serbia's infrastructure and improved living standards as proof of his success, once pledging to make the country a "land of cranes".

From the gleaming waterfront district to the numerous projects unfolding in preparation for Expo 2027, his party's slogan "United Serbia" is plastered on billboards across the capital.

- Rail station tragedy -

But when a concrete canopy collapsed at a newly renovated train station in 2024 killing 16 people, the accusations of corruption which had dogged many of his signature projects caused an outpouring of anger.

Student-led demonstrations calling for transparent investigations drew hundreds of thousands to the streets in the largest protests since the Milosevic era.

As demands grew into calls for snap elections, Vucic and his supporters pushed back.

Students manning university blockades were labelled tools of foreign powers.

In September, nearly two years into the protests, Vucic finally called snap elections for October, citing "major turbulence on the domestic political scene", thus meeting a key student demand.

"All of this will end on October 25," Vucic said, referring to the protests, at a major pre-election rally in Novi Sad, the city where the canopy had collapsed.

S.Suzuki--JT