Serbia

A week after the fall of the progressive government, the cleaning of the state apparatus has reached the garages. Nine people, including the commander of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit and eight other officers, were arrested for the alleged torture of students inside a government building. The arrest follows that of the Belgrade District Prison's special unit director, suggesting the new administration's interest in investigating the previous one is not yet exhausted.

The surveillance methods of the former regime are also becoming public. Journalists from Radar were reportedly wiretapped by the security services specifically to identify their sources, while leaked documents suggest a broader network of secret surveillance against critics of Aleksandar Vučić. The public prosecutor has been asked to open a pre-trial investigation; military analysts have more radical suggestions, calling for the security services to be disbanded entirely.

The transition is proving particularly awkward for those recently pardoned by the former president. Police are searching for Gorski Matović, a man pardoned by Vučić after attacking students, who is now suspected of threatening voters on election day. An inquiry committee is moving to annul all such pardons, while the first ever EU report to show a regression in Serbian education notes that repression of students has become a systemic problem.