From Orbán to Trump, democracy pushes back as voters challenge illiberal and far-right politics
Five elections, from Hungary to the United States, have offered a striking reminder that entrenched political power can still be challenged through democratic voting.
🔍 WHY THIS STORY MATTERS
Recent elections across five democracies show how voters can still disrupt entrenched political power, while exposing the limits of treating very different national results as a single ideological wave.
KEY TAKEAWAYS...
● Hungary ended Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power when Péter Magyar’s centre-right Tisza party won a two-thirds parliamentary majority in April.
● Serbia’s student-led movement subsequently defeated Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party after nearly two years of anti-government protests.
● Lula defeated Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil, while Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc lost its parliamentary majority in Israel.
● US Democrats have now won majorities in both the House and Senate, ending unified Republican control of Washington.
S omething unusual is happening across democracies.
It did not begin this week.
In April, Hungarian voters ended Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power, handing Péter Magyar’s centre-right, pro-European Tisza party a landslide victory.
Now, within little more than a week, elections in Serbia, Brazil, Israel and the United States have delivered another remarkable sequence of setbacks to entrenched political power, populist movements and the right.
These elections were not the same. Their voters were motivated by different concerns. Nor does every victorious party belong to the left. Hungary’s Tisza, for example, is a centre-right party.
What connects these elections is not left against right. It is something more fundamental: voters demonstrating that political movements which appear entrenched, dominant or extraordinarily difficult to dislodge can still be challenged through democratic elections.
Hungary
Hungary provided perhaps the most dramatic early example.
On 12 April, the pro-European Tisza party defeated Orbán’s Fidesz after 16 years of uninterrupted rule. Tisza won 141 of Parliament’s 199 seats, securing a two-thirds majority and the largest parliamentary majority in Hungary’s post-Communist history.
The significance extended beyond an ordinary transfer of government. Orbán had described the political system built under his leadership as an “illiberal democracy”, while European institutions had repeatedly raised concerns about corruption, judicial independence, media pluralism, and the rule of law.
Hungarian voters nevertheless demonstrated that an entrenched government could still be removed at the ballot box. Péter Magyar subsequently took office as prime minister, leading Hungary’s first non-Orbán government in 16 years.
Then came Serbia.
After nearly two years of anti-government protests, a student-backed movement defeated the alliance of Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party, securing a parliamentary majority. The movement emerged from protests demanding accountability after the 2024 Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse, and campaigned heavily on corruption, justice and the rule of law. The Students’ List is now preparing for the transfer of power.
Then Brazil.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva overturned his first-round deficit to defeat far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, in the presidential runoff. Lula won 51.8% against Bolsonaro’s 48.2%, interrupting a run of conservative presidential victories across Latin America.
Israel.
Israel produced a more complicated result, and we should resist pretending otherwise.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud remained the largest party. But Netanyahu’s bloc fell to 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, short of the 61 required for a majority. Opposition parties won 48, while Arab-led parties achieved a record 19 seats. No governing coalition has yet emerged.
Now the United States.
Democrats have won control of both chambers of Congress, ending unified Republican control of Washington and imposing a significant new congressional constraint on Donald Trump’s presidency. Democrats are set to hold substantial majorities in both the House and Senate when the new Congress takes office.
The result was not driven by one issue or one section of the electorate. Economic concerns were important, as was dissatisfaction with the Iran war. But the AP Voter Poll also found that roughly eight in ten moderate voters believed Congress was not doing enough to provide checks and balances on the presidency.
Five democracies.
Five countries. Five very different political systems and electorates.
It would be tempting to declare a global democratic wave. That would go too far.
Brazil re-elected an incumbent. Israel remains politically deadlocked. American voters were choosing Congress and state governments, not deciding directly whether Trump should remain president. Serbia’s student movement has yet to demonstrate how it will govern. And Hungary provides its own warning: removing an entrenched government is only the beginning of restoring confidence in democratic institutions.
There is another reason for caution. These results cannot simply be described as victories for “the left”. They are not.
Magyar is centre-right. Serbia’s student movement drew its strength from anti-corruption protests rather than conventional left-right politics. Different economic, institutional and political grievances shaped voters’ decisions in every country.
Exercising Democracy.
That makes the pattern more interesting, not less.
Democracy does not require voters in Budapest, Belgrade, São Paulo, Tel Aviv and Texas to want the same things.
What connects them is the exercise of democratic power itself.
For years, European politics has been accompanied by warnings about democratic backsliding, the resilience of populist movements and the electoral strength of the far-right. Those concerns have not disappeared.
But neither has the electorate’s capacity to surprise those who believe political power has become permanent.
Hungary showed it in April. Serbia, Brazil, Israel and the United States have now provided very different versions of the same reminder.
No political movement is unstoppable when voters still have a meaningful vote, institutions still count it, and citizens remain determined to use it.
🔮 WHAT MATTERS NEXT...
🎯 WHAT TO WATCH NEXT:
● Hungary’s attempt to reverse institutional changes made during 16 years of Orbán government, and whether reforms strengthen judicial independence, media pluralism and anti-corruption safeguards.
● Serbia’s transition to a student-backed government and whether its anti-corruption and rule-of-law agenda survives the move from protest movement to government.
● Israel’s coalition negotiations, where Netanyahu’s bloc remains short of a parliamentary majority and Arab-led parties hold a record 19 seats.
● The confrontation between Donald Trump’s White House and a Democratic-controlled Congress when the new House and Senate take office in January.
● Lula’s fourth presidential term and whether Brazil’s closely divided electorate produces political stability or continued confrontation.
🎯 MOST LIKELY OUTCOME:
● These elections are more likely to remain distinct national political events than become a coherent international political movement. Their common significance lies in demonstrating the continuing capacity of elections to disrupt entrenched power.
🎯 WHAT COULD CHANGE THE PICTURE:
● Failed governments, unsuccessful institutional reforms, renewed victories by defeated political movements or, in Israel, a coalition arrangement that keeps Netanyahu securely in power would complicate any broader democratic-wave interpretation.
🎯 WHY THIS MATTERS:
● Democracy depends not on one ideological camp winning permanently, but on citizens retaining a meaningful ability to remove, constrain and hold political power accountable.
GOING FURTHER
Hungary’s Magyar announces ministers after landslide election win | Associated Press
Ministers take office in Hungary’s first non-Orbán government in 16 years | Associated Press
Serbia’s students demand resignations in police, judiciary as they prepare to take power | Associated Press
Lula’s win in Brazil bucks a regional shift to the right and denies Trump a powerful ally | Associated Press
Difficult negotiations lie ahead in Israel after Netanyahu’s bloc lost its parliamentary majority | Associated Press
Democratic sweep of Congress ushers in a new era as Trump acknowledges impact of the Iran war | Associated Press
Young voters led a sharp shift toward Democrats in the 2026 midterms, The AP Voter Poll finds | Associated Press
European leaders gather in Budapest for anniversary of Hungarian revolution as Magyar resets EU ties | Associated Press
Sources:
▪ This piece was first published in Europeans TODAY on 6 November 2026.
▪ Cover: Dreamstime/KORWEN.
