In November 1996, local municipal elections were held across Serbia. The opposition, headed by the DS and SPO, parties made big gains at the expense of Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). Milošević refused to recognize the results, thus sparking a huge outpouring of street protests. "Blic" capitalized on this to further its position on the market through fair coverage of the events ignored by the government-controlled media. The decision turned out to be a business winner in the short term as circulation rapidly grew to 200,000 copies a day, but it also drew the ire of the Milošević authorities.