Joe is based in Brussels, where he focuses on European politics and defence. He has covered the Ukraine war and its peace negotiations and reported on US elections from Washington DC 5:19pm GMT Over and over, history has taught us that empires always fall, no matter how solid they once were. Most, if not all, of his 14 years in power were dedicated to manipulating the state apparatus to aid his political survival.

His increasingly authoritarian governments were repeatedly accused of rigging elections, rolling back democratic standards and overseeing corruption.

There were also allegations that government forces paid thugs to beat up protesters, with the assailants evading justice.

On Sunday, a group of candidates put forward by the rebellious students behind these anti-government demonstrations won 52 per cent of the vote – or 140 of the 250 seats available in the Serbian parliament.

A drone view shows crowds gathering after Vučić said he had been defeated Tens of thousands of people celebrated the unlikely victory on the streets of Belgrade as Mr Vučić acknowledged his defeat.

Before his concession speech, there had been fears the nationalist leader would follow the example of his predecessor Slobodan Milosevic, who refused to accept the result of the 2000 election before huge protests forced him to make an about turn. But now the world outside Serbia will respond to the toppling of Mr Vučić.

He played a clever game, straddling both a close friendship with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and a business relationship with the EU.

In Brussels, they were celebrating his defeat. Congratulatory social media posts came from both Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, the respective heads of the European Commission and European Council.

Many analysts drew comparisons between Mr Vučić‘s defeat and the defeat of Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s former pro-Moscow prime minister. After all, Mr Orbán was ejected from power because his voters had grown tired of the country’s tilt towards a dictatorship.

A pedestrian walks past a partly vandalised mural depicting Putin in Belgrade in 2022 The view in Moscow might be slightly different.

On a continent where Putin is increasingly isolated from his peers, he could always trust in the goodwill of Mr Vučić. The Russian president was, of course, one of the world leaders to openly support his ally’s re-election bid.

While the former Serbian government was keen to support Ukraine’s independence, it never provided any military hardware to Kyiv and refused to join Western sanctions on Moscow. But Europe shouldn’t hold its breath waiting for this stance to change.

The 250 academics and experts put forward by the Student List, the official campaign born out of the protests, did declare their opposition to punitive economic measures against Moscow during the campaign.

Serbia will also continue to buy gas from Moscow, it was reported after their victory.

Nor did they express any real interest in getting Serbia’s stalled EU accession talks back on track.

Putin awards Vucic Russia’s Order of Alexander Nevsky in Belgrade in 2019 Little is known about the group’s visions for foreign policy.

Most of their campaign was dedicated to criticising the alleged government corruption under Mr Vučić. Serbia is likely to once again become the subject of a struggle for influence between Moscow and Brussels.

Putin will be banking on Serbs’ natural alliance with Russia and their Slavic ancestry to play out in his favour.

The likes of Mrs von der Leyen and Mr Costa will hope that the promise of joining the EU’s single market and the apparent riches that come with it will be enough.

But if the bloc draws parallels to the Hungarian elections, it will understand that sometimes a new leader doesn’t mean a change in domestic politics.

Peter Magyar, in Budapest, continues to carry out many of Mr Orbán’s old anti-Brussels policies, just with a smile and more willingness to compromise.