Mladenov served as the first secretary of the party's committee in
Vidin Province from 1969 to 1971. Several other top officials, including Defense Minister
Dobri Dzhurov, Premier
Georgi Atanasov, and Finance Minister
Andrey Lukanov, were also upset with Zhivkov over the expulsion. Along with Mladenov, they began plotting to overthrow Zhivkov. Although Lukanov did most of the organizational work, it was decided that Mladenov would be the new party leader. At the yearly
Warsaw Pact summit, he met with
Mikhail Gorbachev and got his tacit support for removing Zhivkov. In October 1989, Mladenov organized a 35-nation environmental conference and invited the Bulgarian
NGO Ecoglasnost to participate. Ten days into the conference, several Ecoglasnost members were beaten up by the
Darzhavna Sigurnost (secret police) and the
militia on orders from Zhivkov. When Mladenov found out about it, he decided Zhivkov had to go. To that end, he let it be known that he supported free elections, a greater role for the legislature and other reforms. Three days later, on 14 December—the same day that Zhivkov was expelled from the party—the BCP's Central Committee asked the National Assembly to delete the provisions of the
Zhivkov Constitution that enshrined its leading role. The Central Committee also endorsed early elections in the spring. Those elections were held in
June 1990.
Transition to Democracy The final legal step in ending Communist rule in Bulgaria came on 2 January 1990; when the National Assembly amended the constitution to remove Article 1, which enshrined the Communist Party's leading role. On 3 April the State Council was abolished and replaced by an executive presidency. Mladenov was elected as the first holder of this post by the National Assembly. In April 1990, the Communist Party reorganized itself as a Western-style social democratic party, the
Bulgarian Socialist Party. Mladenov resigned as President in July 1990 after allegedly suggesting the use of tanks against anti-government demonstration in December 1989, securing a place in history with the phrase 'The tanks had better come' (). He did not run in the 1990 elections and largely retired from public life. ==Death==