Student-led movement ousts Serbia's right-wing ruler in historic election

Amna Nawaz:

Well, and Brazil isn't the only country with dramatic election results this weekend.

In Serbia, longtime leader Aleksandar Vucic was defeated after an historic election on Sunday brought down his government.

William Brangham joins us now with more.

William Brangham:

For more on the results from Serbia and how this result is echoing around the world, we turn again to Heather Conley. She served as deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs during the George W. Bush administration. She's now a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and works with an international consulting company.

Heather, great to have you back.

Help us understand something. Your reaction to this? Because some viewers might think, Serbia is not that big of a nation, under seven million people. They're not in the E.U. They're not in NATO. So how important is this result?

Heather Conley, American Enterprise Institute:

Well, it's extraordinary because of how it came about and the focus of the concern of the protesters.

First and foremost, this was led by students. It's a young persons' -- it's a movement that doesn't have a leader. It's decentralized. It's digitally savvy, and it brought down literally a strongman of Serbia who had all control over the powers, economic, political powers.

And the focus of the protest was on corruption, government corruption, and we're seeing that issue become a real global issue. And certainly young people are taking to the streets and really, strongly seeking another solution from government.

So I have to say, as a watcher of the Western Balkans, it was like I was watching October 2000, when the people poured out in the streets in Serbia to oust Milosevic. President Vucic was a member of Milosevic's Cabinet, and this was truly people power.

And it sort of comes along -- we remember the Hungarian election not too long ago that brought in a new leader who also was fighting corruption. This is also a strike against Russia and China, two countries that were strongly influencing Serbia. And so it's certainly a win for the people of Serbia, but we will see how they govern from here. Big question marks to come.

William Brangham:

Right, because as you were saying, this wasn't Vucic against another candidate. This was a parliamentary election, and Vucic basically saw that his party was getting drubbed in the polls and conceded this race peacefully.

Did that surprise you how quickly he came forward and said, we have clearly lost, time to move on?

Heather Conley:

Yes, I mean, we always think of the strongman with incredible control over economic powers, that they're not going to go quietly into the night. There was an hour where the Serbian government, the electoral commission, didn't release the results. I think they paused, saw how dramatically large it was, and said, look, we can't fight this now.

But if the student-led movement is disorganized, if they cannot form a government, we have all the levers there. We will try to sort of fight this out another day. But I was surprised, and good for them for acknowledging this was a historic win.

William Brangham:

Did the tenacity of this student movement impress you? I mean, we have seen a lot of protests that have been bubbling up, often youth-driven. But this one lasted quite a while, and as you were saying, seems quite effective.

Like, I -- when you look at this, the broad scope of what's happening in Europe, does this feel spiritually, philosophically connected to all these other protests that we're seeing?

Heather Conley:

Yes, I like to think we're starting to see some dots connected, particularly with youth movement.

As you said, this started two years ago when a rail station in Novi Sad, Serbia, it was recently renovated and it collapsed, killing 16 people. It was clearly an example of, again, government corruption that didn't use the right building materials. There was no accountability.

So these student protesters began to galvanize around, we want credit -- we want the government to be transparent. We want someone to be held accountable for this. Over time, though, it grew, and it grew about demanding greater things from government, greater accountability, and it and it grew across Belgrade.

So there's something that they fought for two years and look at what they achieved. But we're seeing this historically elsewhere. In Albania very recently, students are now growing against a -- what they believe to be a corrupt investment in Albania that has links to President Trump's family.

We see...

William Brangham:

This is the Kushner and his wife's investment in a luxury resort.

Heather Conley:

Exactly, in Albania. We're seeing that huge pressure on the government, whereas some we have seen in France in these -- in these protests. Now, some of them have become violent, but we're seeing where young people, just high schoolers, were saying, I cannot accept anymore.

The fact that I don't have a teacher in my classroom, my classroom isn't working, I want something better. I demand the government take action. And now others are joining in that, unions, as well as the Yellow Vest movement.

And even in the Brazil example that you just showed, what appears to be the difference between the first and the second round and the surprising victory by President Lula was a real empowerment, Lula's army of young people, that really were galvanized.

So we're seeing young people taking part. Turnout is historically high. But the thing is, they're demanding something different from government, not the same old story. And a lot of this is focused on corruption and that governments are not addressing critical problems.

You see that in India with the Cockroach movement over elect -- education and removing electoral voter rolls.

William Brangham:

Right.

Heather Conley:

They are putting real pressure. So power to the people, power to the young people. But this isn't a hope. This is desperate and they need action.

William Brangham:

Heather Conley of the American Enterprise Institute, thank you so much.

Heather Conley:

Thank you.