Do we like Iliana Yotova?
Our score: 5 out of 10. Nothing harmful found in her own words, but we found nothing on LGBTQ+ rights either, and her stance on Russia and Ukraine is a real worry.
Yotova started out as a reporter and news anchor on Bulgarian National Television. In 1997 she moved to the Bulgarian Socialist Party's press centre. She then became an MP from 2005 to 2007 and an MEP from 2007 to 2017.
She was Rumen Radev's running mate and served as his vice president. When Radev resigned in January 2026 to lead his party into the April parliamentary elections, she took over as president. She is the first woman to hold the job, and in November she won it outright at the ballot box.
The harm check is where it gets murky. We found nothing from her on LGBTQ+ rights, trans people, women's rights or the climate, so we can't say she passes or fails there. What we do have is her foreign policy: coverage says she opposes military aid to Kyiv, supports lifting sanctions on Russia and wants a negotiated end to the war. That is a contested political position rather than hate. Where you land depends on whether you read it as pragmatic peace-seeking or as going soft on Moscow.
In June she backed Prime Minister Radev's opposition to EU sanctions on Patriarch Kirill. She said Bulgaria is an Orthodox country and asked, “Should we divide believers in Bulgaria?” Critics will say that shields a figure close to the Kremlin. Her defenders will say she was protecting religious communities at home. She has also been described as evasive on possible Russian involvement in October's Black Sea drone attacks on merchant ships.
She calls herself a leftist and says she will not forget who gave her a start. Her campaign centred on “incomes, peace, and the challenges that lie ahead”. In February she vetoed Election Code changes capping overseas polling sections, and she called for action on electricity prices and support for pensioners. That is the everyday, bread-and-butter side of her record.
So the verdict: nothing found against her as a person, and nothing found for LGBTQ+ people either. The presidency is largely ceremonial, but it carries a veto and a say on ambassadors and caretaker governments, so her Russia-leaning line matters. We would sit on the fence and watch what she does on rights and on Moscow.