Aleksandar Vučić, who resigned as Serbia's president on 27 September to run instead for the premiership as his party's leader, conceded in the early hours of October 26 that his ruling Serbian Progressive Party had lost the snap election he himself called. The student-backed "Student List" surged on record turnout; it grew out of two years of protests over corruption linked to the 2024 Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse that killed 16 people, and fielded doctors, teachers and former athletes rather than career politicians. The defeat closes off the route back to power Vučić chose when he quit the presidency.
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Euronews · Sunday, 25 October 2026
Bulgaria's incumbent president Iliana Yotova led with 35-36.5 percent in Sunday's presidential vote, according to exit polls, narrowly ahead of banker Andrey Gyurov on about 32 percent. Neither reached an outright majority, so a runoff will be held on November 1. The campaign was dominated by Russia's war on Ukraine and by security concerns after drone attacks on commercial ships off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, alongside rising energy prices and inflation.
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Euronews · Sunday, 25 October 2026
Marine Le Pen launched her 2027 presidential campaign on October 25 in Orléans, a city she described as under siege from unrest, pledging to "restore the rule of law" after her own conviction for misusing EU parliamentary funds. The launch fell on the same weekend that nearly 2,400 people were arrested in protests across France, reinforcing her message of a country coming apart. Le Pen is appealing the conviction, which would bar her from running, and her National Rally party is preparing for her to stand regardless.
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Euronews · Sunday, 25 October 2026
