Following Viktor Orbán's April loss to Péter Magyar’s Tisza party, Aleksandar Vučiċ was ousted by a leaderless Serbian student movement that formed less than two years ago. High voter turnout driven by tech-savvy young citizens played a decisive role, reaching 79% in Hungary and 69% in Serbia. Campaign organizers successfully deployed artificial intelligence to detect historically vulnerable polling stations and direct monitoring teams, with Hungarian civic groups actively training Serbian volunteers. Both incoming opposition forces secured matching parliamentary majorities of 140 seats to solidify their governing control.
Key points
Mobilized youth voters using modern data technologies proved capable of unseating entrenc…: Mobilized youth voters using modern data technologies proved capable of unseating entrenched regional leaders within a single year.
Cross-border civic collaboration helped counter election-day irregularities and protect p…: Cross-border civic collaboration helped counter election-day irregularities and protect polling integrity in both nations.
Both newly elected opposition groups captured commanding legislative positions by securin…: Both newly elected opposition groups captured commanding legislative positions by securing exactly 140 seats in their respective parliaments.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
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When they met in northern Serbia last November, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučiċ and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán could hardly have guessed they would both be out of power within a year.
Both were ousted by popular movements - Orbán fell first, in April, defeated by Péter Magyar's Tisza party. Then last Sunday a student movement less than two years old won Serbia's parliamentary elections by a landslide.
The Tisza party in Hungary and the Student List in Serbia look very different - Tisza is centred on the personality and energy of its leader, while the students in Serbia insist they have no leadership.
But the huge turnout - 79% in Hungary and 69% in Serbia, was driven by tech-savvy young people in both countries. They used AI tools to crunch numbers, identify threats to the vote, and mobilise tens of thousands of election monitors to prevent intimidation and electoral fraud by the governing parties.
Mobilisation of voters, and the role of election monitors, played a big role in the opposition victory in both countries.
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