Iliana Iotova
Iliana Iotova is a Bulgarian politician and journalist who has served as the president of Bulgaria since 23 January 2026. She is the first woman to hold the position. A member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Iotova previously served as the vice president under Rumen Radev from 2017 to 2026.
Early life
Iliana Malinova Iotova was born in Sofia, People's Republic of Bulgaria on 24 October 1964. She studied in the Lycée Français de Sofia. She received a degree in Bulgarian and French philology from the University of Sofia and later specialized at the École nationale d'administration in Strasbourg, France, and the Center for European Studies of the University of Strasbourg.In the 1980s, Malinova worked as a nurse at the First Hospital of Sofia St John the Baptist. From 1990 to 1997, she worked at Bulgarian National Television as a reporter, editor, director, presenter of news and current affairs programmes and also became head of the News and Current Affairs Directorate. She then worked as the director of the press service of the Bulgarian Socialist Party in 1997.
Political career
In the 2005 national elections, Iotova was elected to the National Assembly, an office she held until 2007. During her term, she headed the Bulgarian delegation to the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie and member of the delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.Member of the European Parliament (2007–17)
Iotova became a Member of the European Parliament in 2007 and was re-elected in 2014. There she was part of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group.In parliament, Iotova served on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, the Committee on Fisheries, and the Committee on Petitions. From 2012 until 2013, she was also a member of the Special Committee on Organised Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering. From the 2014 elections, she served as vice-chairwoman of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, under the leadership of chairman Claude Moraes. In this capacity, she was her parliamentary group's rapporteur on a 2015 report calling for the equitable distribution of 40,000 refugees across the European Union.
In addition to her committee assignments, Iotova served as chairwoman of the parliament's delegation to the EU-Montenegro Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee and as member of the delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean. She was also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Integrity.
Vice President of Bulgaria (2017–2026)
Ahead of Bulgaria's 2016 presidential elections, Iotova was officially nominated as the Bulgarian Socialist Party's running mate for presidential candidate Rumen Radev. After her election to the Vice Presidency, she resigned her MEP seat. As Vice President, Iotova focused on relations with Bulgarian communities abroad and on promoting Bulgarian education and language. They both were sworn in on 19 January 2017 and began their office on 22 January.On 1 February 2021, President Radev officially announced that he and Iliana Iotova would run for a second term in the 2021 general election. In the second round, held on 21 November, Rumen Radev defeated Gerdjikov with 66% of the vote, thus securing a second term in office for Iotova as well. She was sworn in on 19 January 2022 and her term officially began on 22 January.
On 21 March 2024, Iotova participated in an educational forum in Lisbon, which she sponsored, and in which she called for the need to create a Bulgarian cultural institution abroad to promote Bulgarian culture and language internationally.