In the space of six months, the two most powerful long-time rulers in Southeast Europe have been voted out. That leaves Albania’s Edi Rama as the longest-serving leader in the Balkans.

Rama has been prime minister since 15 September 2013. As of this week, he has been in power for 13 years and one month, and he is only one year into his fourth term.

The first to fall was Viktor Orbán. His Fidesz party was crushed by Péter Magyar’s Tisza in Hungary’s election on 12 April. Magyar was sworn in on 9 May, ending a run that began in May 2010 and lasted almost 16 years.

Then came Serbia. Aleksandar Vučić, who had ruled as prime minister and then president since 2014, resigned the presidency on 27 September to lead his party into a snap election.

The gamble failed. On Sunday night, Vučić conceded defeat to the Student List, the movement born out of nearly two years of protests after the Novi Sad canopy collapse. Preliminary results give the students around 52.5 percent, against roughly 39 percent for Vučić’s United Serbia.

With both men out, the Balkan leaderboard has been reshuffled. Croatia’s Andrej Plenković is now second. He passed ten years in office just last week, having taken power on 19 October 2016.

Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis follows with seven years and three months. Kosova’s Albin Kurti is next, at five years and seven months since March 2021, after winning a fourth mandate to govern this September.

Further down are Montenegro’s Milojko Spajić, with almost three years, North Macedonia’s Hristijan Mickoski, at two years and four months, and Romania’s president Nicușor Dan, at one year and five months.

Bulgaria is the odd case. Rumen Radev was president for nine years before resigning in January. He returned as prime minister on 8 May after a landslide election win, so his current term is only five months old.

Rama’s 13 years are long by Balkan standards, but not by European ones. Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko has ruled since July 1994, more than 32 years, and remains the continent’s longest-serving leader.

If Russia and Turkey are counted, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also rank ahead of Rama, each with more than two decades at the top.

Rama has promised to bring Albania into the European Union by 2030. His opponents, led by Sali Berisha, rejected the 2025 result and accuse him of capturing state institutions, claims his Socialist Party denies.

For now, though, the man who once played basketball for Albania’s national team holds a title no one else in the region can claim.