17.03.2025 

The Russian dictator’s two allies in Europe – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic – have faced the same problems: mass protests by citizens against their policies and demands to resign.

In Serbia, more than 100,000 people held the largest anti-corruption protest in recent memory in Belgrade on March 15. Student-led protests have been ongoing in the country since November 2024, when 15 people died when a canopy collapsed at a newly opened train station in Novi Sad.

On the same day, but in Budapest, tens of thousands of Hungarians protested against Viktor Orban. Opposition leader Peter Magyar said that “Hungary is waiting for spring, together we will put an end to Orban’s winter.”

If the protests and change of power in these countries are successful, Russia will lose its few open allies in Europe.

About what is happening in Serbia and Hungary, in the material of OBOZ.UA

“Comrades, the end”

In Budapest, more than 50,000 people demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The protest was organized by the opposition party TISZA (“Respect and Freedom”), led by MEP Peter Magyar . The opposition party promised to end Orban’s 15-year rule and “make Hungary part of a strong Europe.” In the recent past, this politician was a member of the ruling Fidesz party, whose leader is Viktor Orban.

Magyar is gaining more and more popularity every day, in particular due to his criticism of Orban and his team with close ties to the Kremlin. During his last rally, he simply humiliated his political opponents, addressing them in Russian: “Comrades, the end.”

In opposition to Orban, Peter Magyar announced a public movement – a survey of Hungarians with 12 questions: this is a response to the 12 demands of Putin’s friend to Brussels, for which he became even more unpopular both in Europe and in his own country. Among the questions, in particular, are whether Hungarians agree with Hungary remaining a member of the European Union and NATO, and whether they agree with the fact that the prime minister should hold office for a maximum of 8 years (Orban has held this position since 2010).

“The one who expels” Orbán

Peter Magyar is the first serious challenge to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in his 15 years in power. The 43-year-old lawyer, who comes from a prominent political family that includes a former Hungarian president and one of the country’s most famous judges, joined Orban’s party while he was still in college.

Under normal circumstances, Magyar could have had a long future in the highest echelons of the state, but after the scandal erupted over the role of his wife, the Minister of Justice of Hungary in Orbán’s government, Judit Varga, in pardoning a known pedophile, the politician broke with the current government.

Magyar’s attacks on his former ally were met with a public angered by political corruption and a deteriorating quality of life. In the European Parliament elections last June, the young lawyer-turned-politician’s new party, Respect and Freedom (TISZA), won 29 percent of the vote, the highest number for an opposition party since Orbán came to power.

More and more dissatisfied

Viktor Orbán has effectively blended domestic and foreign policy. He has vowed to protect Hungarians from immigration, Islam, and LGBTQ+ people, while simultaneously proclaiming the unity of all ethnic Hungarians, including those living in neighboring countries. These slogans have become state policy.

The promotion of the Greater Hungary project is another component of this process. Orban skillfully plays on the strings of the soul of every Hungarian, reminding that Hungary was once a powerful European state, respected by all of Europe and with vast territories. Inciting nationalism and statements about insidious foreign enemies against whom it is necessary to unite, intolerance towards non-believers and homophobia under the guise of family values ​​​​helped him win the elections. But recently, something has changed a lot in the perception of Orban by Hungarians.

In recent years, huge cuts to social benefits have been made, along with tax increases, to tackle the budget deficit. While the government promised that “2025 will be fantastic,” these statements ring hollow after Orbán made the same claims for 2023 and 2024. Inflation, a weak forint, high prices – all of these are increasingly felt by Hungarians. Economic woes, corruption, authoritarian methods of governance and controversial reforms have created a significant layer of discontent within Hungary. Against this background, a near-alliance with the Kremlin and open hostility with Brussels, with hints of leaving the EU, all this is further irritating.

Got it and the European Union

Orbán’s continued dominance of Hungarian politics is not only unpopular with Hungarians, it is increasingly angering the EU establishment, as he agrees with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on the need for the West to remain neutral in the war in Ukraine and with the mantras of newly elected US President Donald Trump on national sovereignty within the EU. And the issue is not only in opposition to Ukrainian aid. For a long time, the subject of discussion among MEPs has been Orbán’s deviation from European standards of democracy, usurpation of power, opposition of Hungary to EU policies and deviation from pan-European norms. And Estonia is already openly calling for the suspension of Hungary’s voting rights in the Council of the European Union for systematic actions against the common interests of Europe.

Orban’s party is losing.

Parliamentary elections in Hungary will be held in 2026. The TISZA party is currently ahead in most polls of Orban’s Fidesz party, which, although it remained the largest party in last year’s European Parliament elections, showed the worst result in the history of EU elections, as TISZA won 30 percent of the vote. This year, the Magyar party is already ahead, with 42 percent against 39 for Fidesz. The main thing is that the trend towards increasing the popularity of the opposition in Hungary is only growing. At the same time, the ratings of the ruling party have been falling steadily since last year.

“Vucic, go”

Large-scale anti-government protests are taking place in Serbia. More precisely, the protests themselves have been going on for a long time, but now they have reached several thousand people and seem to be approaching their climax. Formally, the protesters are demanding criminal responsibility of the authorities for the tragedy on November 1, when a concrete roof collapsed at the railway station in Serbia’s second largest city, Novi Sad, killing 15 people, including children. In fact, today the protesters are calling for a complete change of power in the country.

In January, after three months, President Vučić took the step of appeasing the protesters – Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, Mayor of Novi Sad Milan Đurić, and Minister of Construction and Transport Goran Vešić were all dismissed.

Today, mass protests have grown into a multi-thousand-strong rally against President Aleksandar Vucic himself. Serbs are demanding new elections and the creation of a transitional government – without Vucic, who still doesn’t understand what exactly he should do to calm the growing number of protesters.

The students who started this action were eventually joined by university professors, school teachers, lawyers, representatives of many companies, cafes, restaurants, cinemas and the media. The current protests in Serbia are even larger than 24 years ago, when Serbs went on strike against the then authoritarian president Slobodan Milosevic. According to the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, 107 thousand people took part in the last protest in Belgrade, while the opposition claims that there were 500 thousand protesters. One way or another, the situation in the country is escalating. It was reported that protesters began to use pyrotechnics and explode firecrackers, and there were also several clashes with the police. 56 people are receiving treatment after the protests, 22 were detained by the police. But the protests have shown that ordinary citizens are no longer afraid, now they see fear in the eyes of the authorities.

To please both yours and ours, but not the Serbs

The current Serbian government’s policy is rather ambiguous. Today, Vucic is simultaneously being sidelined by the Chinese, the Americans, the Russians, and the European Union, all of whom see Serbia as a key player on the global chessboard. The Serbian leader has managed to convince everyone that he is either on their side or on the verge of forming an alliance with them. Vucic says he is “very proud” of his good relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaks complimentaryly of US President Donald Trump, and has a “special” relationship with Putin, unhesitatingly giving credit to Russia when it coincides with his foreign policy goals.

A corruption component has been added to such a multi-vector policy, which is incomprehensible to Serbs. Due to the tragic events of last year, when people died due to poor-quality infrastructure repairs, the citizens of this country finally realized that they are dealing with a merger of the mafia with the government. That they have been ruled for several decades by people who lie to half of the citizens that they are joining the EU, and those who do not support this are bad. The second is lied to that they are against the EU, because the EU wants to enslave them and tear them away from their native Russia. It seems that today such a policy has come to an end.

Accusations of the West

Vučić constantly criticizes EU leaders, although their countries are the largest investors and donors to Serbia. For example, in August last year, protests began in Serbia against a lithium mining project. For some reason, the president declared that the protesters, with the support of the West, were going to stage a “color revolution” in Serbia. According to Vučić, this information was given to him by representatives of the Russian special services. Why does the West need this, when only a month ago it concluded an agreement with representatives of Serbia on the supply of lithium, is a rhetorical question.

Regarding the current large-scale strikes that have swept the entire country, the Serbian president once again states that “foreign agents are already calling on students to come out to block traffic and block state institutions.” However, the hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of Belgrade cannot be explained by the machinations of Western special services. Given the current policy of US President Donald Trump towards Serbia, blaming America for the mass protests is a laughing stock in Serbia. The other day, the eldest son of the US president, Donald Trump Jr., visited Serbia and gave a completely complimentary interview to Vučić.

For now, it is unlikely that the president of Serbia will lose power; unfortunately, the opposition does not have a strong and authoritative leader, as, for example, in Hungary, but Vučić’s time in power has gone in the opposite direction.

Orban and Vucic have serious problems

Speaking of Hungary, the situation for Orban is now the most threatening in the entire time he has been in power, which has been 15 years. The opposition has finally found a leader who is accumulating votes around him – Peter Magyar. He made a splash in the European Parliament elections, where he unexpectedly created competition for the ruling party. Now, sociological research shows a further increase in his ratings. As for the events in Serbia, we have a cumulative effect, because the country is stuck in a half-way position in its foreign policy. It is applying for EU membership, but the country’s leadership cannot answer whether it will be able to achieve this membership. In addition, it is actively making friends with the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. Plus, large-scale corruption, which is obviously the cause of the tragedy. Once again, Vučić did not provide an adequate answer to these questions to Serbian society – this opinion was expressed in an exclusive comment to OBOZ.UA by Oleksandr Leonov, Executive Director of the Penta Center for Applied Political Research.

The expert notes that the protests are demanding Orban’s resignation. In fact, there is no need to wait for elections now, society is forcing him to resign. And there are enough factors for this development of events, because Orban has actually led the country into a dead end in relations with the EU, and Magyar is in favor of restoring relations with the union. This is a very important point, because these are significant finances that Hungary, which is in crisis, really needs.

“Europe has frozen quite significant aid to Hungary in response to authoritarian tendencies in the country. And the country is suffering quite seriously economically from these, one might say, sanctions. Moreover, now, in response to Orban’s demarches, a consensus is actually forming in Europe to finally launch an article on depriving Hungary of its voting rights. If this decision is adopted, the country loses the opportunity to influence EU policy. Hungarians do not accept all this, which is why the Magyar’s popularity has begun to grow so rapidly, and vice versa, Orban’s support is falling,” notes Oleksandr Leonov.

As for Serbia, according to Alexander Leonov, the tragedy was only an excuse for people to protest, but in reality everyone has their own claims to the government, to the president. And in fact, now everyone is coming out with their own demands, and all these demands are focused on the fact that Vučić should resign. And this only indicates one thing – Serbian society is tired of the long-term policy of the current president and demands radical changes.

https://news.obozrevatel.com/ukr/abroad/narod-vtomivsya-vid-druziv-putina-serbiya-ta-ugorschina-u-vogni-garyachih-protestiv-chi-vtratit-kreml-svoih-soyuznikiv-u-evropi.htm