Bulgaria had been forced to limit the size of its armed forces after World War I, IMRO chieftains gained control of much of the border area with Yugoslavia. Under the leadership of a large Macedonian group in Sofia, the strong nationalist elements remaining in Bulgaria found the new pacifist policy alarming. The urban working class, which was not helped by the agrarian reforms, moved towards the Communists or the Socialist Workers. There was continued inflation and industrial exploitation. Many of Stamboliyski's subordinates stirred up social tensions by adopting highly dogmatic positions in favour of the rights of the peasants. A confederation called the National Alliance reorganised the Bulgarian right, which had been silent since the war. In 1922 the leaders of this group were imprisoned by Stamboliyski's Orange Guard, which temporarily stopped it from getting going. Meanwhile, in late 1922 and early 1923, Macedonian nationalists occupied Kyustendil on the Yugoslav border. They attacked government officials to protest against the rapprochement with Yugoslavia and Kingdom of Greece. Stamboliyski's response was mass arrests, an accelerated campaign against IMRO terrorism, a purge of his own fragmented and notoriously corrupt party, and called a new parliamentary election. These measures united the diverse opponents of the Agrarians (IMRO, the National Alliance, army factions and the social democrats) into a coalition led by Aleksandar Tsankov. The Communists remained outside the group. Bulgaria's western creditors did not want to protect a government that had rejected their policy of reparations. IMRO agents brutally assassinated Stamboliyski in June 1923 and the conspirators soon took control of the whole country with only a scattered and ineffective peasant resistance. The 1923 Bulgarian coup d'etat, Tsankov and Lyapchev's cabinets In March 1923 Stamboliyski signed an agreement with Yugoslavia recognizing the new border and agreeing to suppress IMRO. This triggered a nationalist reaction, and on 9 June there was a coup organized by the armed forces under General Ivan Valkov's Military Union with support from the Tsar and other right-wing elements of the Tsardom after the AP controlled 87% of Parliament in the elections that year. The Bulgarian government could only muster a handful of troops to resist and even worse was a peasant mob with no guns rallied by Stamboliyski. Despite this, the streets of Sofia erupted in chaos and the hapless prime minister was lynched in addition to attacks on unarmed peasants. The whole affair seriously tar brushed Bulgaria's international image.