In spite of the crisis' formal resolution in 1997, most citizens of Zagreb and large parts of the Croatian public refused to acknowledge the new administration, considering the crisis an ongoing event. In May 2000, four months after the parliamentary election in January in which HDZ had lost power at the national level, the new centre-left government of Ivica Račan called for a special local by-election in Zagreb, which ultimately resulted in SDP's landslide victory and SDP's Milan Bandić becoming mayor.