Viktor Orban and Aleksandar Vucic won big this week. The two pro-Russia leaders crushed their opponents in Hungarian parliamentary elections and Serbia’s presidential runoff. The margins were brutal. Orban’s Fidesz party took over 53 percent of the vote. Vucic won outright, his nearest rival trailing by roughly 40 percent. No runoff needed. That has never happened before in Serbia. Vucic said during his victory speech that he achieved something nobody else could do. The race was not even close, he told supporters.
These victories matter because they lock in two governments that reject the Western liberal order. Hungary and Serbia sit in the heart of Europe. Orban has governed for over a decade with an autocratic style that critics say undermines democratic norms inside the European Union. Vucic has faced similar accusations. Both men maintain close ties with Moscow and Beijing. Both campaigned on nationalist rhetoric that frames Western values as a threat. The elections did not just hand them power. They handed them a mandate to keep drifting away from EU liberal values.
What is at stake is the shape of Europe itself. The European Union was built on the idea that liberal democracy would spread and deepen. That is not happening. Instead, two member states or close neighbors are consolidating autocratic rule. Orban’s victory was a repudiation of liberal policies. It was also a rejection of alignment with the West. He wants closer ties with Russia and China. Vucic wants the same. The two leaders now have fresh political capital to pursue that agenda.
The war in Ukraine played a decisive role in these outcomes. The conflict has split Europe into camps. One camp backs Ukraine and the Western alliance. The other camp, led by Orban and Vucic, sees the war differently. They used the conflict to mobilize their bases. Orban framed the election as a choice between peace and war. He painted his opposition as puppets of Brussels and Kyiv. It worked. Pollsters and opposition coalitions were stunned by the size of his win. They had expected a closer race. They were wrong.
Serbia’s result carries its own weight. Vucic won a second term without a runoff for the first time in the country’s history. That is a sign of how thoroughly he has consolidated control. His nearest rival never came close. The opposition is fractured. The media is largely loyal to the government. The electoral system favors the incumbent. Vucic’s victory speech made clear he knows what he has built. He achieved something no predecessor could.
The broader picture is stark. Russia and China are expanding their geopolitical footprint across Europe. They are doing it through elections, not invasions. Orban and Vucic are not anomalies. They are models. Other leaders in the region watch what they do. The results from April 3 give those leaders a template. Win on nationalist rhetoric. Tie yourself to Moscow or Beijing. Reject liberal norms. Call it sovereignty. The European Union has few tools to stop it. Sanctions and diplomatic pressure have not worked. Orban has been in power for over a decade. Vucic is now locked in for another term.
This is not a temporary shift. It is structural. Two elections in one day delivered a victory for autocracy in Central Europe. The war in Ukraine made it possible. The nationalist rhetoric sealed it. The voters chose it. That is the hard fact. Europe now has two entrenched leaders who are openly hostile to the liberal order. They have the votes to prove it. What happens next depends on whether the EU can find a way to respond. So far, it has not found one.
