On July 6, 1990, our first president, Petar Mladenov, resigned, because of the phrase “ The tanks had better come. This happens after public pressure.
In 1989, Mladenov, together with his fellow student and friend Andrey Lukanov and with the help of Dobri Djurov 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 BKP on November 10, 1989
Headed the party as its general secretary until the changes in the Constitution. With the dropping of the clause about the “leading role of the BKP” and the introduction of a ban for the head of state to be 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 the Constitution was changed on April 3, 1990, the State Council was disbanded and he was elected Chairman (President) of the Republic .
According to a video released by the opposition, however, during the protest rally on December 14, 1989, he uttered the phrase “The tanks better come”. After public protests by the opposition in the summer of 1990, he stepped down from office (and from active political life) on July 6, 1990, continuing to claim until his death that the tape had been tampered with.
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.