After securing 55 percent of the vote in the April 2 election, Aleksandar Vučić became the new president of Serbia. Various officials from the European Union, the United States, China, and Russia immediately congratulated Vučić, praising him as a guarantor of Serbia’s stability and future prosperity.

However, mass protests are now challenging what seemed to be a sweeping victory and a smooth transition from the position of prime minister to president. Demonstrations, organized on social media the night of the election, spread across the country the following day. With no political parties or other formally organized entities visible, thousands of citizens spontaneously expressed their dissatisfaction with what they perceived as a fraudulent electoral process and with the newly elected president’s increasing concentration of power.

Within three days, Belgrade saw thirty thousand protesters; eighty thousand came out on day six. As the demonstrations have continued, their slogans and demands have changed. Though the uprising retains its spontaneous character — in the sense that it has no party or organization at its head nor does it express a coherent ideology — economic and social justice issues have come to the fore.