The events were condemned by the communist governments of the western Yugoslav republics (especially Slovenia and Croatia), who successfully resisted the attempts to expand the revolt onto their territories, and turned against Milošević.
[4] The presence of ethnic and ideological dimensions to the protestors' demands led Yugoslav authorities to decide to forcibly stop the protests.
The president of the Pristina League of Communists, Aslan Fazlia (an Albanian) said that the protests were nationalistic and counterrevolutionary and announced tough police action against the demonstrators.
The President of the League of Communists of Kosovo Mahmut Bakalli decided in response to ask the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) to bring tanks onto the streets.
[6] Milošević took control of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia's Serbian branch in September 1987, when his faction won over its opposition, led by Ivan Stambolić.
Popular slogans like "Oh Serbia in three parts, you will be whole again" (oj Srbijo iz tri dela ponovo ćeš biti cela)[7] caught on.
However, the avalanche of media campaign orchestrated from Belgrade was about to overwhelm them; they were labelled as power-hungry "armchairers" (фотељаши / foteljaši) and "autonomists" (аутономаши / autonomaši).
[12] The Vojvodina government then cut off power and water supply to protesters, a move which enraged them further still, and caused even more people from Novi Sad and its vicinity to join.
[13] On 6 October, the entire collective leadership of Vojvodina resigned and were soon replaced with Nedeljko Šipovac, Radovan Pankov and Radoman Božović.
It was conceived as a "mother of all rallies", and a huge crowd of people come from all parts of Serbia by public and factory buses taken just for this opportunity.
Milošević reaffirmed his and Serbia's commitment to the principles of liberty and Serbian equality within Yugoslavia:[14] We will win the battle for Kosovo regardless of the obstacles placed in front of us in the country and abroad.
[15] The leadership of the Montenegrin Communist League was on the defense at the time, claiming that it was protecting Kosovo, but their restraint in direct support for Milošević was deemed not good enough by the protesters.
[16] The second act started with joint rallies consisting of workers from Radoje Dakić, a state-owned factory, and Veljko Vlahović University students.
[16] The new younger cadre led by Momir Bulatović, Milo Đukanović and Svetozar Marović, became the new leadership, strongly allied with Milošević in the years to come.
[18] Albanian representatives in the Parliament of Kosovo boycotted the vote on the matter on 23 March 1989, but regardless of the failure of the motion to meet the required two-thirds majority, it was declared to have passed.
From then on, Mesić joined Macedonia's Vasil Tupurkovski, Slovenia's Janez Drnovšek and Bosnia and Herzegovina's Bogić Bogićević in opposing the demands in March 1991 from the Milošević-backed other four members of presidency to proclaim a general state of emergency, which would have allowed the Yugoslav People's Army to impose martial law.