Kosovo MPs today elected Vjosa Osmani, the country’s most popular 38-year-old politician, as president, despite a boycott by opposition parties. The boycott by Kosovo’s opposition parties led to a lack of a quorum in parliament yesterday.
Osmani, a law professor from a generation determined to fight corruption and educated in the United States, received 71 votes out of 82 MPs present, and Speaker Glauk Konjufca declared her “elected president of the Republic of Kosovo.
Osmani told the deputies that “I will work to strengthen the state and the rule of law,” and vowed to “be the president of the people.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti and his leftist nationalist party, Vetevendosje, both support Osmani. The Vetevendosje party captured more than half of the votes in February’s general election.
The Kosovo Assembly was originally held by former KLA guerrillas, but the February election changed the structure of the 120-seat Assembly. Between 1998 and 1999, serious clashes erupted between the KLA and Serbian forces, and the fighting culminated in Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008.
Today was the 3rd attempt to vote in the parliament, which finally ended with the successful election of Osmani. MPs with former partisan and Serbian minority status boycotted the vote yesterday, and today’s result finally unlocked the deadlock.
AFP reports that Osmani and Kuti must now improve their weak economy, where the average monthly income is only 500 euros ($592) and unemployment among young people is about 50 percent.
Many young Kosovars have moved to Switzerland and Germany, and both Osmani and Kuti promised during their election campaigns to restore justice and create jobs.
At the same time, Osmani and Kuti must also quickly address the shortage of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine and overload the healthcare system. Kosovo, which has a population of about 1.87 million, has lost 1,900 people to the disease.
Six of the 15 cabinet members in Kosovo’s government are female ministers, and Osmani was moved to say, “Women have the right to do whatever they want, and every dream can come true.”
However, Serbia still does not recognize Kosovo’s independence and relations between the two sides are tense.
Reuters mentioned that in her speech, Osmani expressed her willingness to dialogue with Serbia to normalize relations, but she also said that Serbia has to apologize first and prosecute those who committed war crimes back then.
The EU and the U.S. may urge Osmani’s new government to talk to Serbia as soon as possible to ease regional tensions.
Hashim Thaci, the former president of Kosovo who was a partisan, was indicted last November for war crimes at a special international tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, where Osmani had been acting as president for several months.
Osmani was elected president by Kosovo’s parliament on April 4.
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