marked by heavy police presence and was cancelled due to the presence of“SNS thugs” according to the organizers. Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, an ally of the Serbian ruling party, failed to condemn the incidents, calling it“an internal issue of Serbia” and a reflection of political divisions in the society. Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime to start investigating potential corruption in the railway project in February. On 15 August, former ministers Vesić and Momirović were released from prison and ordered house arrest by a Court, with the judge described as being close to the ruling party by investigative journalists. Goran Vesić, who is regarded as influential member of SNS and who resigned as Minister of Transport in the days after the Novi Sad tragedy last November, never went to prison this time, as he was reportedly hospitalized for an unspecified illness. The future course of the process will demonstrate how far the judiciary will go in probing the potentially first high­level corruption case since SNS came to power in 2012. Local office of the Serbian Progressive Party(SNS) in Valjevo set on fire during protests, Photo Gavrilo Andrić Two former ministers arrested in a potential judicial turning point On 1 August, 11 people, among them former Serbian state officials including ministers Goran Vesić and Tomislav Momirović, were arrested on charges of abuse of office and are suspected of damaging the budget of Serbia by at least 115 million US dollars related to the project of the reconstruction of the Serbia-Hungary railway line. A part of the project in question involved the reconstruction of the now collapsed main railway station in the city of Novi Sad. Due to the high level of distrust in the judiciary, the public has remained divided over whether the arrests represent a genuine turning point. Sceptics pointed out that Mladen Nenadić, chief public prosecutor for organized crime who ordered the arrests, was appointed in 2016, during the rule of SNS, and that he failed to act on many previous occasions where serious allegations were made against the ruling party. Another reason for caution was the habit of the ruling party to feign accountability when it suits them. Nevertheless, the reactions of the ruling party to the arrests of 1 August were quite different to these earlier cases, suggesting that something more serious might be happening. In fact, Informer television, a mouthpiece of SNS, accused the prosecution of carrying out a“coup”. In the weeks prior to the arrests, pro-government media had already started vilifying Nenadić. An apparently increasing rift between the ruling party and the Supreme Public Prosecutor, Zagorka Dolovac, who was earlier seen as SNS ally, also became visible in recent months. It was Dolovac who ordered the IMPRESSUM Publisher Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung(FES) Belgrade Office Dositejeva 51/1, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia Author Centre for Contemporary Politics Makedonska 21, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia The opinions expressed in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the FES. Commercial use of all media published by the FES is not permitted without the written consent of the FES. August 2025 ↗ serbia.fes.de ↗ centarsavremenepolitike.rs Crisis in Serbia Deepens as Government Escalates Violence Against the Protestors 3