The long-serving leader of Serbia , Aleksandar Vučić, has conceded defeat, ushering in a seismic political shift after a historic election that saw ​the increasingly authoritarian leader pitted against a student-led movement that had spent two years protesting against his government.

Vučić pointed to preliminary results that suggested voters had overwhelmingly backed the students, potentially giving them a majority in the country’s 250-seat parliament.

“We still do not have final ⁠results,” Vučić told supporters at his party headquarters in Belgrade. “On the basis of a sample … it is clear ⁠that we have lost these ​elections, the Student ‌List has ‌won, they will have between 135 ‌and 140 seats and we will have 105.”

Ilija Srdanović, first on the electoral list ‘Student List – Students Win’, celebrates after the first results of the parliamentary election in Belgrade.…