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Zhelyu Mitev Zhelev Желю Митев Желев
2nd President of the Republic of Bulgaria
In office 1 August 1990 – 22 January 1997
Vice President(s)	Blaga Dimitrova
Preceded by	Petar Mladenov
Succeeded by	Petar Stoyanov
Born	3 March 1935 Veselinovo
Political party	UDF
Spouse	Maria Zheleva

Zhelyu Mitev Zhelev (Bulgarian: Желю Митев Желев) (born March 3, 1935) is a Bulgarian politician and former dissident who was President of Bulgaria from 1990 to 1997.

Zhelev was born in the village of Veselinovo. He graduated in philosophy from the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" in 1958 and later earned a Ph.D. in 1974. A member of the Bulgarian Communist Party, but expelled for political reasons in 1965, he was then interned from Sofia the following year and had to spend six years in unemployment.

In 1988 he founded the Ruse Committee and a year later became a founding member and chairman of the Club for Support of Glasnost and Restructuring, which propelled him to the position of Chairman of the Coordinating Council of the Union of Democratic Forces. He was elected MP in the 7th Grand National Assembly, which elected him President of the Republic of Bulgaria on August 1, 1990. In January 1992 he became the first democratically elected Bulgarian President and served his full five-year term until January 1997, having been defeated in the preceding elections by the new UDF candidate Petar Stoyanov.

After the 1996 election defeat Zhelev still remained in politics, but on a much smaller scale. He became Honorary Chair of the Liberal Democratic Union and Honorary Chair of the Liberal International and in 1997 went on to establish and preside over a foundation named after him. Zhelev was the initiator and president of the Balkan Political Club, a union of former political leaders from Southeast Europe.

Zhelev has written a number of books and publications, the most notable one being his controversial 1982 work Fashizmat (Bulgarian: Фашизмът; "The Fascism").

Heads of State of Bulgaria since 1946
People's Republic of Bulgaria	Kolarov | Naichev | Damyanov | Ganev | Traikov | Zhivkov | Mladenov
Republic of Bulgaria	Mladenov | Zhelev | Stoyanov | Parvanov