Iliana Yotova became the first woman elected president of Bulgaria on November 1. She has held the office since January, when Rumen Radev resigned to lead Progressive Bulgaria into the April parliamentary election and she was already the first woman to serve as head of state. Her own five-year term begins on January 22, 2027.

She won with 57.57% and 1,093,852 votes, according to final CEC results. The mandate is clear in percentage terms and narrow in absolute ones. Turnout was just under 30%, the lowest for any presidential runoff and no previous winner received fewer votes. About seven in ten eligible voters did not take part.

Yotova’s own reading of the result stressed cooperation. Voters had “placed their trust in a policy of dialogue, rather than one of division,” she said, and backed decisions reached through coordination between institutions instead of confrontation. The phrase describes the presidency she intends to run. For much of his two terms, Radev used the office as a counterweight to governments he opposed, most visibly when he backed the anti-government protests of 2020. Yotova will work alongside a cabinet led by the man she served as vice president for nine years.

How Independent From Radev?

That relationship is the first question about her presidency. On election night she thanked Radev in front of media: “Dear Mr. Radev, we could not have succeeded without you!” Asked whether the ruling parties would shape her decisions, she said that in nearly 30 years in politics no one had yet come along who could tell her what to do.

Supporters see the partnership as a source of stability after years of repeated elections and caretaker governments. Critics see an institution that may stop checking the majority. The president’s tools are limited but real. She can return a law to parliament, though Progressive Bulgaria’s 131 seats are enough to override a veto, which requires 121 votes. She can refer laws to the Constitutional Court, where she appoints four of the 12 judges. She also signs the decrees appointing the chief prosecutor and the heads of the two supreme courts and she can refuse a nomination once.

Her electorate gives her some room. A large share of her new votes in the runoff came from pro-Russian “Revival” supporters after Kostadin Kostadinov ruled out backing Gyurov, according to Alpha Research data. Kostadinov now claims that “Revival” decided the outcome. Yotova can therefore present a mandate wider than Progressive Bulgaria’s voter base. The same fact creates new pressure, since a party that campaigned against the euro and against aid to Ukraine will expect to be heard.

Russia, Europe and the Black Sea

Foreign policy will draw the most attention abroad. Yotova opposes sending weapons to Ukraine and supports resuming dialogue with Moscow. At the UN General Assembly on September 23, she said Russia and Ukraine must take part in the debate on Europe’s future security after the war ends. In a podcast interview with Martin Karbovski and Yavor Dachkov released on October 30, she was asked whether Russia is an enemy. “Absolutely not. Russia is part of our history,” she replied, adding that she strongly hoped Russia would be “a key factor in the next security architecture for all of Europe.” Some critics have paraphrased this as calling Russia a friend. The recorded wording is that Russia is not an enemy.

Those remarks came while Russia lists Bulgaria, along with the rest of the EU, as an “unfriendly” state, and while drone attacks on merchant ships off Bulgaria’s coast remain a security concern. Radev’s government summoned the Russian ambassador over the attacks, but has not directly blamed Moscow. Former prime ministers Boyko Borissov, Nikolai Denkov and Ivan Kostov accused Yotova and the government of underestimating the Russian threat.

Brussels and Bulgaria’s neighbors answered her win with offers of cooperation. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen listed security, defense, competitiveness and energy independence as shared priorities. Romanian President Nicușor Dan pointed to joint work on Black Sea security and invited her to Romania. North Macedonia’s President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova also pledged cooperation. The Black Sea is where those offers will be tested first, since Bulgaria and Romania face the same drone incidents and share the NATO commitments that come with them.

The Tests Ahead

The first test arrives before her new term begins. The 2027 budget, which the government has promised to send to parliament this week, targets a deficit above 3% of GDP and has already drawn opposition warnings of protest. Yotova will decide whether to sign it as passed or return it, knowing that a veto can be overridden.

The second test is the judiciary. Parliament votes on November 19 on its 11 members of the new Supreme Judicial Council. That council will then nominate a new chief prosecutor, and Yotova’s decree will be needed to appoint whoever it chooses.

Radev defined the office through conflict with the governments of his time. Yotova’s first decision on a veto, whether she uses one or not, will show whether she sees the presidency as a partner of the government or as a limit on it.