In the run-up to the snap parliamentary elections in Serbia on 25 October, Reuters, activists and human rights organisations have reported incidents of violence against protesters, pressure on the media and attacks using spyware. Former President Aleksandar Vučić, who resigned in September, is standing for the post of Prime Minister; the authorities deny allegations of repression and state surveillance, and those responsible for a number of specific incidents have not been identified.
Briefly about the main points
- Elections in Serbia are scheduled for 25 October; Vučić is standing for the post of prime minister.
- RSF ranked Serbia 104th out of 180 in terms of press freedom.
- Citizen Lab and SHARE have reported at least 16 publicly known targets or infected systems.
- Reuters has verified a video showing a protester being beaten in Valyevo in August 2025.
The student movement has become the main challenge for the SNS
The election campaign is taking place following nearly two years of protests, which began after a canopy collapsed at the railway station in Novi Sad on 1 November 2024. Sixteen people died in the incident, and the tragedy sparked student protests and calls for officials to be held to account.
The student movement put forward 250 candidates. According to a poll by New Serbian Political Thought, cited by Reuters on 20 October, the student list had 44.5% support compared with 42.7% for Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party. This poll reflects the mood at the time it was conducted, not the outcome of the vote.
Head of the Centre for Practical Policy Dragan Popović He told Reuters that as political competition intensifies, so too does the pressure on the pro-democracy section of society. This is his assessment of the pre-election situation.
Indices and media organisations are recording a deterioration in the environment
In the 2026 World Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders ranked Serbia 104th out of 180. RSF described this result as the worst among the 40 countries in the «EU–Balkans» region.
As of August, according to RSF, six Serbian journalists were working in exile, four of whom had left the country in 2026. The organisation attributes this to security threats arising from political attacks.
The [Name] Foundation Slavka Churuvia recorded at least 182 verbal attacks by Vučić on journalists and the media between January and September 2026. Vučić denied intimidating the press and stated that he had not shut down any news outlets.
Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index gave Serbia a score of 33 out of 100 and ranked it 116th out of 182 countries and territories. Transparency Serbia described this as the country’s worst result in two decades; the index measures perceptions of corruption in the public sector, rather than the number of proven offences.
The number of known targets of spyware has risen to 16
In September, the SHARE Foundation reported that at least 14 people in Serbia had been attacked or targeted using advanced spyware since the start of the year. Those named included members of the student movement, activists, a Member of Parliament and a local opposition politician.
On 19 October, Citizen Lab, in collaboration with SHARE, reported at least 16 publicly known targets or infected members of civil society. Researchers established with a high degree of certainty that the device of Vladan Đokić, Rector of the University of Belgrade, had been infected with Pegasus; in the case of opposition figure Rade Baić, they cited the Apple Threat Notification as a highly reliable indicator of targeting.
A participant in the protest movement Jelena Kontić told Reuters that in March she had received from Apple a warning about the possible installation of Pegasus, and a subsequent investigation, she said, confirmed this. Reuters was unable to establish who was responsible for the suspected infections of the devices belonging to the two opposition figures.
The Serbian Security and Intelligence Agency described claims of state involvement in surveillance as «trivial sensationalism». Ana Brnabić and representatives of the Ministry of the Interior also denied that students were being monitored.
A video featuring Valiev and testimonies from activists
Reuters has verified a video showing the beating of 26-year-old architect Dušan Radović during a protest in Valjevo in August 2025. Radović told the agency that police officers in riot gear beat him with batons, kicked him and spat at him; as a result, he was unable to walk without limping for two months.
According to an independent report by a forensic medical expert George Alempiévich, 25 people, including minors, were severely beaten that night. The author of the report characterised the injuries as evidence of organised and systematic punitive violence; the Ministry of the Interior did not respond to a request from Reuters regarding the protest and this document.
Activist Marko Maryanovich He also told Reuters that masked men had detained him in Belgrade and held him in isolation for two days in the basement of a police station, and that in August 2025 he had been beaten by police officers. He and his lawyer regard this as part of an intimidation campaign; Reuters did not provide any separate official confirmation of all the details of these allegations.
The security of the electoral process has taken centre stage
The combination of data from RSF and Transparency International, technical findings from Citizen Lab and SHARE, and the incident in Valyevo verified by Reuters is drawing increased attention to the safety of the media, activists and protesters in the run-up to the vote.
At the same time, these findings do not establish the personal liability of Vučić or the Serbian state for each of the cases mentioned. Vučić and his party, the SNS, have repeatedly rejected allegations of repression and corruption, and identifying those responsible for specific attacks requires separate investigations.
