Bulgaria Chief Quits in ‘Let Tanks Come’ Flap

President Peter Mladenov, the Communist reformer who oversaw Bulgaria’s transition to a multi-party democracy, resigned today amid controversy over his inflammatory remarks at a demonstration seven months ago.

The official BTA news agency announced the resignation in a one-sentence dispatch, but gave no explanation. Mladenov, 53, had served as president since April 3.

“Mr. Peter Mladenov, president of the republic, has just handed in his resignation,” the news agency said.

The announcement came hours after Bulgaria’s largest opposition party, the Union of Democratic Forces, joined a chorus of demands for Mladenov’s resignation, citing his remark at a stormy Dec. 14 protest that authorities should “let the tanks come.”

The remark, captured on videotape at the time but forgotten, was resurrected by the democratic opposition in the final days of the campaign for parliamentary elections June 10 and 17.

After several weeks of silence, Mladenov told the nation in a televised speech on Wednesday that his words had been taken out of context. He said he opposes violence and never intended that tanks be deployed against anti-government demonstrators.

The resignation of the president was one of the chief demands of hundreds of students staging a 25-day sit-in strike at Sofia University and outside the presidential building.

On Thursday, the Bulgarian Agrarian Union, which was formerly allied with the Communist Party, made a similar appeal. Even the newspaper of the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party--the former Communist Party--had suggested it would be best for Mladenov to quit.

The controversial remark was made Dec. 14 after Mladenov tried unsuccessfully to persuade a noisy mob of anti-government demonstrators to disperse. Thousands of protesters surrounded the Parliament building that evening, demanding that the ruling Communist Party give up its guaranteed monopoly on power.

When his speech to the protesters was disrupted by jeers and heckling, Mladenov muttered, “Let the tanks come.”

Political observers said many Bulgarians were angered not so much by the words themselves as by Mladenov’s initial refusal to acknowledge that he made the remark, despite the clear evidence of the videotape, which was examined by specialists.