Vučić concedes Serbian vote; Russian media stress ‘deep state’ and sanctions

Aleksandar Vučić, the leader of Serbia’s ruling Progressive Party (SNS), conceded defeat in the snap parliamentary election held on October 25. BBC, The New York Times, Meduza, The Insider and The Kyiv Independent all report the concession. It matters to Russian readers because Russian state outlets are relaying Vučić’s statements about Russia, and those statements go further than the result itself.

Russian state media present the outcome through Vučić’s own words. TASS quotes the former president as calling the result a “revolution carried out with the direct support from a number of European countries and the US deep state”. RT, under the headline “Serbia’s Vucic accuses EU and US ‘deep state’ of election meddling”, says he acknowledged that preliminary projections point to a change of government. The word “revolution” is therefore Vučić’s, as quoted by TASS, and not an independent assessment.

TASS also reports that Vučić said the winning Student List would impose anti-Russian sanctions by spring. A second TASS item is headlined “Students’ List wins snap parliamentary elections in Serbia — Vucic” and says he noted that “many will be surprised” by the result. A RIA Novosti item, available to us only as a headline, says the losing Vučić “predicted a conflict between Russia and Serbia”. TASS separately reported turnout of 64.89% two hours before polls closed. RT, citing the SNS, reported that Vučić’s mother was attacked in Belgrade during the vote.

Independent outlets document the concession in plain terms. According to The New York Times, Vučić said: “It is clear that we have lost these elections”, in a speech it calls surprisingly early that congratulated his opponents. BBC News Russian Service reports that he said the Student List would win the majority needed to form a government. BBC News describes him as a populist right-wing leader of 12 years and says the vote had been billed as a referendum on the country’s future. Meduza and The Insider call him the former president and report that his party lost.

Al Jazeera and BBC News both report celebrations in Serbia after the result. Al Jazeera writes that celebrations erupted across Belgrade as the student-backed movement claimed a major victory. BBC News headlines its report “Elation across Serbia”. Neither report mentions the sanctions or foreign-backing claims that Russian state outlets carry.

The Kyiv Independent gives the background. According to that outlet, student-led demonstrations had targeted Vučić’s SNS for almost two years over alleged government corruption. It says the movement was triggered by the 2024 collapse of a station canopy in Novi Sad that killed 16 people. Only this one independent item in our batch gives those details, so they are attributed rather than treated as established. The same outlet calls Vučić “Russian-friendly”, a label that appears in none of the other items.

The report on the attack on Vučić’s mother comes from two directions. Meduza, citing Serbian broadcaster Informer TV, says Angelina Vučić was attacked in Belgrade as she walked home from the market after voting. RT reports the same incident on the SNS’s word. Meduza’s report relays Informer TV and is not an independent check, and our items give no detail on who attacked her or what the motive was.

Several points remain unclear. The items do not give final results, seat numbers or the composition of the next government. They contain no evidence for or against foreign support for the student movement, or for the forecast of sanctions on Russia, and both rest on Vučić’s statements as relayed by TASS and RT. The RT item reports only an acknowledgment of preliminary projections, while TASS and independent outlets report an outright concession. The items do not say whether these were separate remarks.