BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of supporters of Serbia 's protesting youth movement gathered Thursday at the final campaign rally ahead of a tense weekend parliamentary election in a challenge to the Balkan country's powerful populist strongman Aleksandar Vucic.
Crowds streamed into Belgrade's central Slavija square from all directions, also filling several blocks of streets around the area. The flag-waving, boisterous crowds chanted “Victory” in a wave of optimism ahead of Sunday's early vote that comes after almost two years of student-led protests against Vucic's tight rule in the Balkan country.
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People take part in the final "Student List – Students Win" rally ahead of a parliamentary election in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
People shine the lights of they mobile phones and light flares during the final "Student List – Students Win" rally ahead of a parliamentary election in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
People hold a cutout of Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic during the final "Student List – Students Win" rally ahead of a parliamentary election in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
People take part in the final "Student List – Students Win" rally ahead of a parliamentary election in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
People take part in the final "Student List – Students Win" rally ahead of a parliamentary election in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
Support for the student movement has grown since the protests first started in November 2024. Their Students' List election ticket is polling neck and neck with Vucic's right-wing Serbian Progressive Party despite the ruling populists' tight control over mainstream media and all institutions in the country.
Drama student Natalija Stepanovic told the crowd that “three more days are left and they will pass.”
“So will fear, blackmail, injustice,” she added. “Tyrants will pass, like they always do, but the people of this country never will and they will stand tall as a monument to our joint struggle.”
Analysts say that a close result could make the outcome uncertain and pave the way for potential post-election instability if both sides declare victory after polls close on Sunday. Vucic, who controls the police, has said that any unrest after the vote would be swiftly quashed.
Scores of students have been detained in the past two years as the government cracked down on the protests to curb them. Vucic has been campaigning fiercely against his opponents ahead of the election, accusing the students of being financed from abroad to destroy the country.
International election monitors and the European Union have expressed concern about the safety and fairness of the ballot that has been marred by near-total government control over the media, reports of surveillance and cyber attacks on activists and a deeply polarized society.
Vucic held his closing rally also on Thursday at a sports hall in a separate part of Belgrade before several thousand people. He said he expects a victory by a margin of several hundred thousand votes in favor of his SNS party. He then participated in a radio show before a scheduled evening appearance on the state RTS broadcaster.
“We'll see what the result will be,” he conceded on Radio Belgrade, predicting a "tough, uncertain struggle.” Vucic added that “nothing special will happen” on election night and that “those who win will celebrate.”
While several minor parties are also in the race, observers say that the referendum-like atmosphere between Vucic and the students' movement could push most of the other groups below the 3% threshold necessary to make it to the 250-member Parliament.
“There is hope for the first time in like 30 years,” Marina Popov Taparicki from Belgrade said. "People want change.”
Igor Zecevic, also from Belgrade, added that "the students woke us up, woke everybody up in this country, and we just have to do our thing now, we have to get out, we have to vote.”
Slavija Square in Belgrade was the scene of a huge anti-government protest last March. That rally ended in a sudden disruption that experts later said — and the government denied — involved the use of a sonic weapon against peaceful demonstrators.
Critics accuse Vucic of rampant corruption, ties to organized crime and a crackdown on democratic freedoms, particularly the media, which he has denied. Suspicions of high-level graft in state railway projects triggered student-led protests after a collapsed canopy at a train station in Serbia’s north killed 16 people in November 2024.
People take part in the final "Student List – Students Win" rally ahead of a parliamentary election in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
People shine the lights of they mobile phones and light flares during the final "Student List – Students Win" rally ahead of a parliamentary election in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
People hold a cutout of Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic during the final "Student List – Students Win" rally ahead of a parliamentary election in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
People take part in the final "Student List – Students Win" rally ahead of a parliamentary election in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
People take part in the final "Student List – Students Win" rally ahead of a parliamentary election in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, was charged Thursday with leading what authorities alleged was a wide-ranging criminal enterprise that acquired and distributed large quantities of marijuana and laundered the proceeds.
Lucas, who has been in elected office for decades, used her political power to insulate the operation from scrutiny, according to an indictment charging her and six other defendants, including several of her relatives. She “put her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve,” said U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who spoke at a news conference with FBI Director Kash Patel.
Lucas surrendered, a Justice Department spokesperson said, and was expected to make an initial appearance in federal court on Thursday afternoon.
The charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering, came after the FBI searched Lucas' hometown office and a cannabis shop in which she has a stake in May. At the time of the search, Lucas — who has been a vocal critic of Republican President Donald Trump’s administration — characterized it as an attempt to intimidate her.
“This is the circus we always expected it to be,” said Brian Woolfolk, chief counsel for the L. Louise Lucas Legal Defense Fund.
A statement attributed to Lucas posted on her social media account did not directly address the substance of the charges but said Thursday's actions amounted to the federal government wielding its “full weight” against a great-grandmother.
“I will not be intimidated. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down,” Lucas said in the statement.
The brash 82-year-old lawmaker has spent decades ascending the ranks of Virginia politics and has served since 1992 in the state Senate, where she's the president pro tempore, overseeing the chamber in the lieutenant governor’s absence. More significantly, she leads the powerful Senate finance committee, through which all legislation with any budget impact must flow. She’s used the position to kill legislation she opposes.
The indictment comes as Trump’s Justice Department has faced intense scrutiny over investigations and prosecutions against foes of the president that critics have called politically motivated.
Blanche rejected any suggestion politics played a role in Lucas’ case, noting the investigation began well before the second Trump administration started in January 2025.
“We don’t do political paybacks,” Blanche told reporters.
A person familiar with the May search told The Associated Press at the time that the probe was opened during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.
Patel said in a statement that “Lucas and a close-knit group of family members and associates orchestrated a multi-year scheme to enrich their own criminal marijuana enterprise, ‘the Lucas Enterprise’ — using Lucas’ position as Chairwoman of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee to insulate the enterprise from criminal scrutiny and influencing legislation to financially benefit themselves.”
The indictment describes Lucas as the “leader of the enterprise” who “approved and directed criminal activities,” including arranging for the acquisition and distribution of marijuana and supervising the laundering of the proceeds.
The indictment alleges Lucas worked this year with another of the defendants to use her political position to obtain a recreational marijuana license for him, with the understanding that the proceeds from sales under the license would be shared with her to support the “enterprise.”
Since 2021, marijuana has been legal to possess in Virginia, and many shops across the state have sold cannabis-derived products. But full recreational sales are not yet underway; legislation enacted earlier this year will allow them beginning in July 2027.
Law enforcement made multiple controlled purchases of marijuana from Lucas' shop, which purported to sell hemp products, in 2024 and 2025, the indictment said.
Among the other defendants are two daughters of Lucas and a grandson. It was unclear if they had obtained legal representation. They were also scheduled to make an initial court appearance Thursday afternoon.
A forceful advocate of legalizing marijuana, Lucas partnered in opening the shop, The Cannabis Outlet, in 2021. She has publicly spoken about her ownership stake in the shop as recently as June, though her most recent financial disclosure forms do not list the business by name.
At the time of the search — when marijuana was recovered at The Cannabis Outlet, according to the indictment — many Democrats spoke up to defend Lucas, expressing skepticism about the basis for the search.
On Thursday, Scott Surovell, the Democratic leader of the state Senate, said in a statement that the indictment contained “serious allegations” but emphasized that “Senator Lucas has the right to defend herself, and she has my full support as she does so.” Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat who is close with Lucas, said the allegations against her must be tested in a “full and fair” legal process.
Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger echoed their sentiments and said the timing of the indictment so close to the midterm election would “further erode” Americans' trust in the Justice Department. Lucas herself is not on the ballot this year.
Ryan McDougle, the Senate Republican leader, said he would not comment while the court proceedings play out.
Lucas, who represents a district that includes her hometown of coastal Portsmouth, operates with a sometimes-profane, unapologetic style that’s drawn comparisons to Trump.
She amassed a six-figure following on X and national attention, using the social media platform to advocate forcefully for her priorities and to bash her critics, including former GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin. She’s also occasionally blasted members of her own party, including Spanberger, with whom she’s had disagreements.
Earlier this year, Lucas helped lead Democrats’ ultimately unsuccessful plan to gerrymander the blue-leaning state’s congressional districts into a map intended to elect 10 Democrats and only one Republican. Along the way, she posted quips about four GOP members the intended map sought to oust, joking that they soon would be working at McDonald’s. She and other Democrats defended the maps as a reasonable response to Trump-backed efforts to boost the GOP’s midterm advantage in other states.
Lucas has notched several historic firsts in her career. According to a biography from the state library, in 1971 she became the Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s first female shipfitter, a physically demanding job that involves working on metal assemblies for vessels.
She launched her political career in 1984, when, the biography said, she became the first Black woman elected to the Portsmouth city council.
In her decades in the state Senate, Lucas has been a staunch advocate for abortion rights and increased public school funding and a leading voice on issues of racial justice and civil rights.
In 2019, after Democrats flipped control of the chamber, her peers elected her to serve as president pro tempore. And in 2024, she was tapped to lead the chamber’s budget committee, gaining enormous sway over any legislation tied to the state budget. In that post, she played a leading role in killing Youngkin’s proposal to bring Washington’s NBA and NHL teams to a proposed $2 billion development in Virginia.
Rankin reported from Richmond. Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker contributed from Washington.
FBI Director Kash Patel, right, and US Attorney General Todd Blanche, left, answer questions during a press conference announcing the indictment of Virginia State Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, Thursday Oct. 22, 2026, in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
US Attorney General Todd Blanche answers questions during a press conference announcing the indictment of Virginia State Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, Thursday Oct. 22, 2026, in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
FBI Director Kash Patel, right, US Attorney General Todd Blanche, center, and Assistant US Attorney Theophani Stamos, during a press conference announcing the indictment of Virginia State Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, Thursday Oct. 22, 2026, in Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
FILE - Virginia Senate President pro tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, listens to debate on the Senate floor, Feb. 17, 2026, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly, File)
FILE - Virginia Senate President pro tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, listens to debate on the Senate floor, Feb. 17, 2026, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly, File)
