IRI: Corruption Top Concern, 46% Would Weigh Student List

The Balkans wide survey published today by the International Republican Institute (IRI) was conducted in the field from May 27 to June 24, 2026, on a sample of 1,502 adult citizens of Serbia. Three quarters of respondents were reached by phone, the rest through an online panel, and the sample was weighted to the 2022 census. The declared margin of error is 2.6 percentage points. The American institute has published results for Balkan countries for years, so the numbers can be read as part of a series rather than a single snapshot.

The overall picture is one of stagnation. Forty nine percent of respondents believe Serbia is moving in the wrong direction, while 41 percent say it is moving in the right one. In the same institute’s survey from May and June last year the split was 51 to 44, a shift small enough to fall within the range that does not support talk of a turn in either direction.

Corruption Is the Word That Keeps Coming Back

Asked what the country’s biggest problem is, 22 percent of respondents name corruption, by far the largest single group. Behind it come the government and ruling party, or the poor political situation, at nine percent, the economic situation and high prices at eight percent, and the student protests at five percent.

The same word returns when the question narrows to the ruling parties. There, 35 percent name corruption as their biggest flaw, a considerably higher share than when the question concerns the state as a whole. The other complaints trail far behind:

• poor personnel, nine percent
• lack of party unity, four percent
• centralization of power, four percent
• disconnect from citizens’ problems, four percent

It resurfaces again in the economic section of the survey. Asked what would do the most to improve the economy, 38 percent point to fighting corruption, and 23 percent to raising wages and pensions. Assessments of respondents’ own households are not bleak: seven percent describe theirs as very good, 60 percent as mostly good, 24 percent as mostly bad and seven percent as very bad. People, in other words, are not reporting personal financial ruin, but a systemic problem they see above them.

Steven Nix, IRI’s senior director for Europe and Eurasia, said the findings show that “deep polarization in Serbia is evident throughout the survey.”

What That 46 Percent for a Student List Actually Measures

Asked whether they would consider voting for a student electoral list if students were to form one, 46 percent of respondents say they would, and 40 percent say they would not. Among citizens seeking radical change that share rises to 76 percent, and among those who directly support the protests to 89 percent.

Two things that are easy to conflate are worth separating. First, support for the protests themselves splits the public almost down the middle: 42 percent support them, 41 percent do not, and among those aged 18 to 35 support rises to 57 percent. Second, the question about a list is hypothetical, measured before any such list exists on a ballot. We have previously written about the student association and its published statute, but an association is not an electoral list, and the path from one to the other runs through signatures, candidates and a called election.

Willingness to actually vote is high. Sixty eight percent of respondents say they would very likely vote, and another 15 percent say they would probably vote. That figure matters more to every political actor than any single rating, because a high announced turnout changes the arithmetic for both the government and the opposition.

The opposition parties fare no better in the same survey. Citizens name weak leadership as their biggest flaw, 13 percent, followed by lack of unity and fragmentation, 12 percent, and the absence of a clear program, 10 percent.

The European Union: Support Without Expectations

In a referendum on EU membership, 46 percent of respondents say they would vote in favor and 29 percent against. More interesting is the question of who is stalling the process. Seventeen percent think the government is bringing Serbia closer to membership, 33 percent think the government either does not want that or is not able to deliver it, and 40 percent think the EU does not want Serbia as a member. Most respondents, in other words, do not believe the negotiations are moving, but they disagree on which side is holding them back.

Where Citizens Would Put the Money

Answers to the question about state investment go against the themes that dominate campaign rhetoric:

• agriculture, 37 percent
• healthcare, 22 percent
• education, 17 percent
• industry and manufacturing, 13 percent
• infrastructure, four percent
• information technology and innovation, three percent

Infrastructure and technology, the two items most often cited in government announcements, together draw seven percent. That gap cannot be attributed to methodology by either side, since it comes from the same sample and the same question.

The breakdowns in this survey will only become testable at the first election cycle that gets called. Until then, one finding resists easy interpretation: corruption is the top answer to the question about the state, to the question about the ruling parties, and to the question about the economy.