Four elections in Brazil, Serbia, Israel, and the United States delivered setbacks to authoritarian leaders over ten days, providing new evidence of grassroots democratic resilience worldwide, theguardian.com reported.
The outcomes arrived across widely varying circumstances. Yet each contest demonstrated how grassroots activism could produce electoral surprises that pushed back against would-be autocrats, according to theguardian.com.
Lula Secures Brazil Victory
In Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won an unprecedented fourth term with nearly 52% of the vote on October 25, according to theguardian.com. He defeated Flávio Bolsonaro in a runoff after trailing in the first round.
Flávio Bolsonaro had made clear that his priority upon winning would be to free his father, Jair, from prison, where he is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup four years ago, theguardian.com reported. Following the defeat, Flávio Bolsonaro fled to Miami rather than attempting to reverse the result by force.
Brazilian political scientist Miguel Lago described the second round to theguardian.com as a moment when society rejected the far right. “The second round was about Brazilian society saying no to the far right,” Lago said.
Student Shock in Serbia
On the same day, a student-led movement inflicted a defeat on Aleksandar Vučić after 14 years of entrenched rule, theguardian.com reported. The uprising traced its roots to a tragedy in November 2024, when a newly renovated train station canopy collapsed, killing 16 people and exposing systemic corruption, democracydefendersaction.org noted.
The improvised list of professors, farmers, and political amateurs won 140 of the 250 seats in the national assembly, leaving Vučić’s Serbian Progressive party with 103, according to theguardian.com. Belgrade University political science professor Slobodan Markovich told theguardian.com that the student campaign created a snowball effect.
“Students went to almost every single household, and people began believing that a change was possible,” Markovich said. Intelligence reports indicated ordinary police officers shared widespread dissatisfaction, and the police withdrew shortly after Vučić conceded, theguardian.com reported.
Netanyahu Loses Majority
Elections in Israel on October 27 reduced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition from 68 to 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, according to theguardian.com. The mainstream Jewish opposition bloc won 48 seats.
Arab Israeli parties delivered the biggest surprise of the vote. The Joint List and Ra’am coalitions won 11 and eight seats respectively, nearly doubling the representation of Palestinians in the Knesset, theguardian.com reported.
American-Israeli political analyst Dahlia Scheindlin told theguardian.com that Arab citizens of Israel have long supported civil liberties and minority rights. However, mainstream Jewish opposition leaders remained reluctant to bridge ethnic divides to form a governing coalition, leaving a political standoff more than ten days after the election, according to theguardian.com.
Democratic Sweep in Washington
The trajectory of these international shifts was further shaped by US congressional elections, theguardian.com reported. Democrats won clear majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, flipping long-held Republican districts.
The sweep weakened the capacity of the Trump administration to promote illiberal governance abroad, according to theguardian.com. Steven Hill, author of 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy, told theguardian.com that Donald Trump had acted like an American pharaoh through executive orders and the sidelining of courts.
| Country | Date of Election | Key Outcome | Outgoing/Defeated Force |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | October 25 | Lula da Silva wins 52% in runoff | Flávio Bolsonaro / Far-right movement |
| Serbia | October 25 | Student List wins 140 of 250 seats | Aleksandar Vučić / SNS party |
| Israel | October 27 | Netanyahu coalition drops to 53 seats | Likud-led rightwing bloc |
| United States | November (Tuesday) | Democrats win House and Senate majorities | MAGA movement / Republican Congress |
While the immediate threats to institutional norms have receded in these nations, incoming lawmakers face difficult institutional repairs, theguardian.com reported. In Israel, the extent of cooperation between mainstream Jewish opposition parties and Arab factions remains unresolved.
