Bulgaria Marks 25th Anniversary of Historical Anti-Communist Protest

Bulgaria marks on Sunday the 25^th anniversary of a historical protest against the then ruling Communist regime.

Students started the protest on 14 December 1989 with a demand for the autonomy of universities.

The demonstration grew into a human chain, which encircled the building of the Parliament.

Citizens joined the students and called for the cancellation of Article 1 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, which had provided for the leadership position of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP).

The protest continued until late in the evening, with the members of parliament (MPs) from the ruling BKP and the puppet Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union (BZNS) pretending that nothing was happening outside the building.

At some point some of the MPs decided to go outside and calm down the crowd.

The then Communist leader Petar Mladenov, who had succeeded Todor Zhivkov in November, was booed vehemently.

Mladenov lost his nerve and supposedly uttered the phrase “the tanks had better come”.

The leaders of the opposition called the crowd to disperse as they feared a possible eruption of violence.

This date marks one of the first instances of anti-communist slogans and the first siege of the Parliament in Bulgaria's most recent history.

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