Some EU leaders courted the authoritarian Vučić regime – they must offer this reborn democracy a future within the union

As polling stations closed across Serbia on Sunday evening, riot police were deploying around the presidency in Belgrade. Many of us feared the worst: massive electoral fraud, a refusal to recognise defeat or outright violence. After nearly 15 years of Aleksandar Vučić’s increasingly authoritarian rule, a peaceful transfer of power seemed implausible.

I had good reason to feel afraid. I am co-founder of an annual conference on the security and foreign policy challenges shaping the western Balkans, and sit on the international advisory committee of a civil society thinktank, the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy. Such work would be uncontroversial in most countries seeking European Union membership. Under Vučić’s regime, it was anything but.

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© Photograph: Marko Dimic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Marko Dimic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Marko Dimic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

A movement that began in outrage has delivered remarkable election upset, showing that change is possible and prompting questions over what comes next

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In April of last year, dozens of students set off from Serbia, intent on making it to Strasbourg, France on bicycles. The aim of the arduous, 13-day transcontinental journey was simple: to make their voices heard in Europe and beyond.

In their home city of Novi Sad, students had been holding near-daily protests after a deadly roof collapse at the city’s main railway station. As their push for accountability and justice spread across the country, it was met with baton-wielding police, teargas and a political class that branded these young people as traitors.

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© Photograph: Marko Drobnjaković/AP

© Photograph: Marko Drobnjaković/AP

© Photograph: Marko Drobnjaković/AP

A movement that began in outrage has delivered remarkable election upset, showing that change is possible and prompting questions over what comes next

• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

In April of last year, dozens of students set off from Serbia, intent on making it to Strasbourg, France on bicycles. The aim of the arduous, 13-day transcontinental journey was simple: to make their voices heard in Europe and beyond.

In their home city of Novi Sad, students had been holding near-daily protests after a deadly roof collapse at the city’s main railway station. As their push for accountability and justice spread across the country, it was met with baton-wielding police, teargas and a political class that branded these young people as traitors.

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© Photograph: Marko Drobnjaković/AP

© Photograph: Marko Drobnjaković/AP

© Photograph: Marko Drobnjaković/AP

The long-serving leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, has conceded defeat, ushering in a seismic political shift after a historic election that pitted ​the increasingly authoritarian leader against a student-led movement that had spent two years protesting against his government. As news broke that Vučić’s 12 years in power had come to an end, celebrations erupted on the streets of Belgrade and other cities. But how did we get here - and what happens now? The Guardian's Europe live correspondent, Jakub Krupa, explains

• ‘It’s the smell of freedom’: Belgrade cleans up after Student List triumph

• As students we never sought power – here’s how we reclaimed Serbia

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© Photograph: Guardian

© Photograph: Guardian

© Photograph: Guardian

The Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for New Hampshire to fully ban the use of student IDs for voting during the midterm elections.

A new proposed $70,000 fee for international students who are seeking to work in the U.S. after graduation is the latest Trump administration policy targeting scholars from abroad.