Kosovo found a president at the last possible moment. In a marathon session on October 6, lawmakers elected Justina Shiroka-Pula with 81 votes in the 120-seat Assembly, minutes after the constitutional deadline lapsed, averting the dissolution of parliament and another snap election. It closed a political crisis that had paralyzed the legislature for more than 19 months and forced two early elections. The road there was long: an attempt in March failed for lack of quorum, the Constitutional Court repeatedly set deadlines, and Vjosa Osmani’s term lapsed on April 4, leaving Speaker Albulena Haxhiu as acting president for six months.
The word “decisive” needs care, though. The president must be elected by two thirds of the Assembly, which is 80 votes, so she cleared the bar by one. The outcome was decisive; the margin was not. Prime Minister Albin Kurti proposed her only that night, and the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) conditioned its support on changes to the law governing the Specialist Chambers. Stability was bought with a concession, and that shapes everything that follows.
Between the lecture hall and the ministry
Shiroka-Pula’s path is often summarized as academia to government, but it is more a series of crossings. Born in Pristina in 1953, she earned her doctorate in economics in 1977, worked briefly at the National Bank of Kosovo, then rose from assistant lecturer to professor at the University of Pristina. She served as minister of energy and mining from 2008 to 2011 and sat in the Assembly for the PDK until 2014, before returning to academic life. Last December she became the first woman to lead the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts. She now holds no party affiliation.
That mix is her real asset. She carries a technocrat’s credibility and enough party history to understand how the Assembly bargains, which is exactly what a compromise candidate needs.
A symbol that must also act
She is the third woman to serve as president, after Atifete Jahjaga and Vjosa Osmani. That continuity matters, because it makes a woman at the head of the state an ordinary expectation rather than an exception. But symbolism is cheap. Osmani’s term ended in institutional paralysis, and the measure of this presidency will be whether Shiroka-Pula can act as an independent guarantor of the constitution rather than a figure placed to keep a bargain intact.
The first test: the Specialist Chambers
That test arrives immediately. After the Hague-based court sentenced former president Hashim Thaci and three other KLA leaders to 81 years combined on September 16, protests swept the country. The amendments passed just before her election cap sentences at 15 years, shorten the court’s mandate, move cases to Kosovo’s courts, allow sentences to be served in Kosovo, and give the president pardon powers. The EU says the law “goes against Kosovo’s international obligations”, and the Chambers themselves say they were not consulted. The politics were unusually unified: the first reading passed 90 to 0. The changes would not alter the existing sentences, and the four convicted men have said they will appeal through the current process.
The law is now on her desk, and she has eight days from receipt to act. Some legal experts see no constitutional ground for returning it. Still Article 162 of the Constitution gives the Chambers a special status, and the president may refer constitutional questions to the Constitutional Court. Signing without scrutiny would hand her a pardon power over men convicted by an EU-backed court. Referring to it would test her relationship with the coalition that elected her. Legal analysts also doubt the Chambers’ own constitutional panel in The Hague would accept changes affecting the release of defendants, so a jurisdictional clash is possible whichever way she goes. As of October 21, no decision had been reported.
What her mandate buys abroad
The presidency has limited formal powers, but it represents the country internationally. Her mandate is best understood as institutional, not personal. In her oath she promised to be president of all citizens, a pledge that will be measured against how she handles the one issue dividing citizens from Brussels. Support from both Kurti’s party and the PDK gives her credibility with partners that a contested appointee would lack, and she has pledged to strengthen institutions and keep Kosovo’s Euro-Atlantic orientation. Analyst Donika Emini hopes for more coordinated foreign policy among the president, the prime minister and the foreign ministry.
That coordination will be tested quickly. Brussels wants to restart stalled normalization talks with Serbia, and Ursula von der Leyen has said the court’s mandate must be fully respected. Kosovo still lacks recognition from five EU members, so goodwill in European capitals is not a luxury. If she can reassure partners without alienating a public that sees the verdicts as an attack on the independence struggle, she will have made the presidency matter. If not, Kosovo will have a president, and the same crisis.
Benjamin Jenkins Wise
Political Science Graduate and UNCTAD Intern
