On July 6, 1990, our first president Petar Mladenov resigns, because of the phrase “It is better for the tanks to come”. This happens after public pressure.
In 1989, Mladenov, together with his fellow student and friend Andrey Lukanov and with the help of Dobri Dzhurov and Stanko Todorov, organized the intra-party coup that led to the removal of Todor Zhivkov from the party leadership at a plenum of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party on November 10, 1989.
He headed the party as its Secretary General until the changes in the Constitution. With the abolition of the clause for the “leading role of the Bulgarian Communist Party” and the introduction of a ban on the head of state being a member of the party leadership) in April 1990. Petar Mladenov withdrew from the party.
He replaced Todor Zhivkov also as Chairman of the State Council on December 17, 1989. After a change to the Constitution on April 3, 1990, the State Council was dissolved and he was elected Chairman (President) of the Republic.
According to a video recording distributed by the opposition, however, during the protest rally on December 14, 1989, he uttered the phrase "It's better if the tanks come". After public protests by the opposition in the summer of 1990. He resigned from office (and from active political life) on July 6, 1990, continuing to claim until his death that the recording had been manipulated.
He died on May 31, 2000 after a long illness. By order of the President, Petar Stoyanov was buried with state honors as a former head of state.