Economist Justina Shiroka Pula, 72, was elected President of Kosovo today, thus ending six months of institutional crisis that forced early parliamentary elections last June.
© Erkin Keci/Anadolu via Getty Images
07/10/2026
by
Lusa
O Kosovo’s Constitutional Court had granted Parliament a deadline until midnight from 6 to 7 October to elect the Head of State; otherwise further elections would have to be convened, the Wednesdays in less than two years.
The vote in favour of Shiroka Pula, by 81 of the 120 Members of the House, took place a few minutes after the deadline, which could be verified through the live transmission of the session on the Kosovar Parliament website on the Internet.
The Kosovo Constitution requires that the election of the Head of State be approved by at least two thirds of the 120 Members of Parliament.
Economist and without political affiliation, the new President led Kosovo's Academy of Sciences and Arts since 2025 and succeeded Vjosa Osmani, whose five-year term ended in April 2026.
“ Kosovo needs to strengthen its institutions and to pursue its Euro-Atlantic orientation,” the new President said in a speech to MEPs.
After the end of Osmani's term of office, the political parties of the former Serbian province failed to agree on a successor, which led to the dissolution of Parliament and the convening of early elections in June.
Shiroka Pula was proposed by the ruling party, the self-determination movement (LVV) of Prime Minister Albin Kurti, under an agreement reached at the last minute with the opposition's Kosovo Democratic Party (PDK).
Kosovo, which declared Serbia's independence in 2008, is still not recognised by Belgrade or several EU countries, including Cyprus, Slovakia, Spain, Greece and Romania.
Portugal recognizes the small State of the Balkans since October 2008.