Kosovo’s Parliament Selects Osmani as New President

Osmani will serve as the 7th President of Kosovo since their declaration of independence in 2008 (Flickr).

Kosovo’s 120-person parliament elected 38-year-old Vjosa Osmani as the country’s new president on April 4 by a vote of 71-11 among 82 lawmakers present. After serving as interim president since November 2020, Osmani will command the armed forces and retain other high-ranking responsibilities, particularly centered in diplomacy. 

Opposition groups and Serb nationalist factions abstained from the election, with many in these parties protesting the now-solidified dominance of the social-democratic Vetevendosje Party, which includes the Kosovan Prime Minister, Parliamentary Speaker, and now President. 

Osmani was a teenage activist in war-torn Yugoslavia and studied at the University of Pristina and the University of Pittsburgh. She entered politics as a member of the Democratic League of Kosovo but was later expelled. The 38-year-old now markets herself under the dominant Vetevendosje party, which fell just two seats short of an absolute majority in February’s general election. 

Osmani serves as the second woman president in the country’s short 11-year history, and she comes after former Kosovan President Hashim Thaci, the former guerilla leader who vacated his seat in November 2020 due to charges of war crimes.

The young president has been tagged as “fearless” by the Kosovo media and is nationally recognized as a reformist who seeks to root out corruption amid the state’s ongoing political and economic struggles that have only gotten worse since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The most persistent challenge for the young country, however, is its quest for normalization with Serbia. The two countries’ 1990s conflict ended in a NATO air raid that solidified Kosovo’s victory. Nonetheless, Belgrade, along with China, Russia, and other allies, still refuse to recognize the state’s independence. 

Osmani declared that peace would “only be achieved” after “remorse” and “apology” from Serbia, and only after there is “justice for those who have suffered from their crimes.” 

The U.S. ambassador to Kosovo welcomed the Osmani, tweeting that the “U.S. remains committed to the close partnership with the Republic of Kosovo to build a future of peace, justice, and prosperity for all citizens.”