Is Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic really prepared to make fundamental compromises? Recent developments suggest that the ongoing daily mass protests across Serbia have had some affect, and have caused Milosevic to backtrack from the position of recognizing no opposition victories in municipal 17 November runoff elections.

As recently as 13 December Milosevic was reaffirming a hard-line. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher made public on that day, Milosevic finally broke his silence on the issue of the opposition Zajedno coalition and the ongoing mass public demonstrations. For his part, Milosevic denied all allegations that he had engaged in or engineered electoral fraud to undermine the 17 November opposition victories. He also stressed that he would not use force against "peaceful" demonstrators, but described the protesters as "vandals" and "political terrorists." Also, the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) joined Milosevic in condemning Zajedno, dubbing it a force bent on "destabilizing" Serbia. "Zajedno has shown itself to be a direct instrument of those international factors that want to impose a policy and regime opposed to the public interest," said a 13 December SPS resolution.

But mass protests across Serbia reached a new level on 15 December. On that date, an estimated 250,000 people turned out in Belgrade to participate, Radio B92 reported. It was the largest gathering to date. It was perhaps in direct response to such mounting public pressure that a court in Nis, Serbia's second largest city, ruled that in fact the opposition coalition Zajedno had won in 17 November runoff municipal elections, and urged the local electoral commission to recognize those returns. Serbia-wide mass demonstrations, now backed by students and a growing number of trade unionists, developed first as a call for the regime to recognize opposition wins at the municipal level, but have evolved into calls for the resignation of Milosevic.

Meanwhile, international support for the Zajedno demands to have municipal election returns recognized has also continued. On 15 December U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Kornblum met with Serbian opposition leader Vuk Draskovic for over two hours in Geneva. Kornblum emerged from the meeting expressing his support for the "democratic process" in Serbia.

Just a day after that, a court in the Serbian town of Smederovska Palanka ruled that the local electoral commission turn over the municipal council to the opposition Zajedno coalition, thereby recognizing opposition victory in the polling. Even for his part, Montenegrin Premier Milo Djukanovic reacted to events in neighboring Serbia, noting "recognition of the second round [17 November] elections is the best solution," Nasa Borba reported on 17 December.

And in yet another sign Milosevic was willing to make concessions, and amid growing trade union support for the daily mass demonstrations across Serbia, the Serbian government has announced it would not debate an unpopular labor bill that could as legislation cost as many as 800,000 jobs, Reuters reported on 17 December.

In reality, Milosevic may be aiming to diffuse the protest movement. It is possible that his tactic so far is only to offer up limited concessions in the hopes that enough people will be satisfied, and thus motivated to stop participating in the daily marches. For now, Milosevic appears unwilling to give up the jewel in the crown of Serbian local politics, but should he move towards recognizing opposition victory in Belgrade he could be showing that his totalitarian hold on power has at last been shaken.