Celebrations have erupted across Serbia after a student-backed movement ousted President Aleksandar Vucic’s ruling party in snap parliamentary elections, ending his long grip on power.

In Belgrade late on Sunday, drivers in cars draped in Serbian flags honked their horns through the streets as fireworks lit up the sky and crowds flooded central squares and the area around parliament. “I feel as though I am finally living in a free country,” student Mila Martic told reporters as people raised three fingers, the Student List ballot symbol and a traditional Serbian greeting.

Sunday’s elections capped nearly two years of student-led demonstrations triggered by the 2024 collapse of a canopy at the Novi Sad railway station, which killed 16 people, a disaster widely blamed on corruption and cronyism. The movement grew into some of Serbia’s largest protests since the 2000 overthrow of strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

At the Student List headquarters, supporters hugged, cried and chanted, “Victory, victory!” Candidate Radomir Saicic, a university professor, declared: “Serbia has won as we promised. Never again a tyrant in this country,” while he urged peaceful, dignified celebrations and “serious, responsible hard work” from Monday.

Elsewhere, pro-government encampments near parliament were dismantled as riot police trucks withdrew to the sound of cheering crowds.