Rocky campaign nears end as Serbia prepares for watershed election – as it happened

22/10/2026

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today.

Make sure to join us on Sunday night for our live blog covering the Serbian parliamentary election as strongman Aleksandar Vučić faces the biggest test of his 12 years of increasingly authoritarian rule in the country (16:54).

Here is your summary of today’s events:

It’s the last day of the electoral campaign in Serbia today ahead of this Sunday’s closely contested parliamentary election characterised by civil unrest, a new political landscape, allegations of irregularities, an uncertain outcome and the potential of far-reaching consequences (16:10, 16:20, 16:27, 16:35, 16:40, 16:44).

Elsewhere,

French president Emmanuel Macron has condemned “ultra left” for “seditious acts … aiming to bring down the Republic,” after consulting with intelligence and security authorities ahead of more protests planned this weekend (12:30).
Macron said the government would ban demonstrations not organised by trade unions as it seeks to contain the civil unrest that rocked the country in recent weeks (11:33, 11:47, 12:34).
But first attempts to block some demonstrations already face legal challenges as more protesters took to the streets today (15:53).

Meanwhile,

A Ukrainian national has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia, local prosecutors in Karlsruhe announced (13:28).
German chancellor Friedrich Merz said he was not surprised by the arrest, as “Germany is a target of intensive espionage activity” all the time (14:02).

If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.

I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.