Justina Shiroka-Pula, president of Kosovo: What the Swiss media write

Kosovo has a new president. Justina Shiroka-Pula was elected in the early hours of Wednesday by the Assembly of Kosovo, ending a long period of political uncertainty and avoiding, at the last moment, a fourth parliamentary election in less than two years.

Kosovo’s parliament managed to secure the required two-thirds majority for the election of the new president. Justina Shiroka-Pula received 81 of 120 votes, while one MP voted for the opposing candidate Eliza Hoxha and two votes were declared invalid. With this result, she was elected president in the first round.

Her candidacy was proposed by Prime Minister Albin Kurti, less than two hours before midnight. Shiroka-Pula, who comes from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), managed to secure the necessary support of opposition MPs, making it possible to complete the electoral process and avoid the dissolution of the Assembly.

The election of the president took place in a tense political climate. Before the vote for the head of state, the Assembly approved in second reading the changes to the Law on the Specialist Chambers, an issue that had been at the centre of political clashes and protests in recent days.

According to Swiss media reports, the political agreement between the governing side and the opposition was decisive in securing the votes needed for the new president.

The Watson outlet describes the role of the president in Kosovo as mainly honorary, while stressing that the compromise reached avoided a new institutional crisis.

A last-minute political process

The constitutional deadline for electing the president was expiring, and failure to reach an agreement would have brought the dissolution of the Assembly and new elections. This would have been the fourth time in less than two years that Kosovo’s citizens would have been called to parliamentary elections. SRF describes the election as avoiding new elections at the last moment.

The post of president had remained vacant since April, when Vjosa Osmani’s mandate ended. Previous attempts to elect her successor had failed, as the election of the president requires the participation of two-thirds of MPs, as Telegrafi reports.

After the election, Justina Shiroka-Pula was immediately sworn in at the Assembly and officially took up her new duty. In her first speech as president, she declared that she will be a president of all citizens and that she will defend the Constitution, the interest of the Republic and the dignity of the citizens of Kosovo.

Who is Justina Shiroka-Pula?

Justina Shiroka-Pula is an economist, university professor and academic. She has a long career in higher education, scientific research and public institutions.

According to SRF’s reporting, the 72-year-old was a PDK MP in the Assembly from 2011 to 2014, while in 2017 she withdrew from party posts. Since December last year, she had been heading the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts, being the first woman at the head of this institution.

LeCanton27, a Swiss media outlet in the Albanian language, describes Shiroka-Pula as a figure with a long academic and institutional career. She worked for decades at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Pristina, while during her career she also exercised public functions, including that of Minister of Energy and Mines and of MP of the Assembly.

She was elected a corresponding member of the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2016 and a full academic in 2020, before taking over the leadership of the institution.

A new chapter for Kosovo’s institutions

Justina Shiroka-Pula’s election comes after months of political clashes and institutional uncertainty. Through the agreement reached between the governing side and the opposition, the Assembly managed to elect the head of state and avoid another electoral process.

Swiss media placed particular emphasis on how the political compromise was reached, on the fact that the vote took place at the last moment, and on the profile of the new president, who moves from heading the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts to the head of state.

With her swearing-in at the Assembly, Justina Shiroka-Pula has taken up the duty of President of the Republic of Kosovo, opening a new institutional chapter after a long period of political crisis.