VIENNA — After 14 years of authoritarian rule, Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) have been ousted from power. Although polls had predicted a close election, the student-led opposition ultimately won by a wide margin. In an election that was neither free nor fair—owing to media capture, violence against the government’s opponents, and the SNS’s blatant misuse of state resources—the Student List won 53 percent of the popular vote, which translated into 141 parliamentary seats and an absolute majority. Vučić and his SNS trailed badly, with 38.8% and 103 seats. The students’ victory was the culmination of months of protests that began in November 2024, when a canopy at the Novi Sad railway station collapsed, killing 16 people. With the government doing little to punish those responsible, the public outcry continued to build, and popular mobilization paved the way to change through the ballot box. But this is not the only lesson for pro-democracy forces around the world. In Serbia’s case, both the popular mobilization and the later electoral campaign