Iliana Yotova won Bulgaria’s presidential runoff with 57.6% of the vote, becoming the country’s first woman elected head of state. (Foto: Instagram)
Interim President Iliana Yotova won Bulgaria’s presidential runoff on Sunday, Nov. 1, with 57.6% of the vote, according to the Central Election Commission. The result makes her the first woman elected head of state in the country. The commission reported the total after all votes had been counted.
Andrey Gyurov, a former interim prime minister backed by pro-Western opposition parties, finished second with 39.5% of the vote.
After early projections were released, Yotova thanked voters who had not supported her. She said their votes mattered, and that she and her team would listen to their concerns and hopes and examine them seriously. She also said they would consider the views of people who did not vote.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Yotova. In a post on X, she said she looked forward to continuing their work together on security and defense, competitiveness, and energy independence, adding that she wanted to see “a strong Bulgaria in a strong Europe.”
Yotova, 62, is a politician and journalist born in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital. She studied Bulgarian and French philology at Sofia University. She later pursued further studies at the National School of Administration (ENA) in Strasbourg, France, and at the Center for European Studies (CEES) at the University of Strasbourg.
