Two authoritarian leaders in Central Europe—Aleksandar Vučiċ of Serbia and Viktor Orbán of Hungary—have both lost power within months of each other, each defeated by opposition movements that mobilized large swaths of their populations.
Orbán fell first in April when Péter Magyar’s Tisza party won Hungarian elections. Last Sunday, a student-led movement in Serbia secured a parliamentary landslide, winning 140 of 250 seats. Despite their different organizational structures—Tisza centered on Magyar’s leadership while the Serbian Student List emphasizes collective action without designated leaders—both opposition movements relied on similar tactics. High voter turnouts of 79% in Hungary and 69% in Serbia were driven largely by young, technology-literate citizens who deployed artificial intelligence tools to analyze voting patterns and mobilize tens of thousands of election monitors across polling stations.
The two countries’ opposition movements shared strategies and expertise. Hungarian civic activists from the DE group conducted workshops with Serbian students during the summer, teaching techniques developed during Hungary’s election. A key method involved identifying “infected” polling districts where past voting patterns suggested potential intimidation or fraud. On election day, monitors worked in coordinated teams at threatened locations, filming activities and serving as deterrents against potential misconduct.
Both Vučiċ and Orbán had appeared politically dominant, each holding office for more than a decade and consolidating control over state institutions and business interests. The two leaders maintained close personal and political ties, including shared allegiances with Vladimir Putin and support for separatist figures in the Balkans. Yet both conceded defeat at nearly identical times on their respective election nights—Orbán at 21:30 on April 12, and Vučiċ at 21:30 on Sunday. Reports suggest the two may have communicated during the evening, though details remain unclear.
With both former leaders now out of office, both countries’ judiciaries are investigating potential corruption and abuse of power. The parallel institutional structures between the two nations may facilitate coordination in pursuing accountability. A railway station collapse in Novi Sad in 2024 that killed 16 people, attributed to corruption and negligence involving companies connected to Orbán’s circle, galvanized the Serbian student movement that ultimately brought down Vučiċ.
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