Kosovo has a new President. In an extraordinary session, the Assembly voted Justina Shiroka Pula into office with 81 votes, bringing to a close a process that was unblocked only after a last-minute political agreement between Vetëvendosje and PDK.
The Assembly vote and final result
The session began with 89 MPs present in the chamber, at a moment when political attention was focused on breaking the deadlock over the head of state.
After the vote, Justina Shiroka Pula was elected President of the Republic of Kosovo with 81 votes. Eliza Hoxha was also in the race, but in the end the parliamentary majority consolidated around Pula’s name.
The agreement that unblocked the process
According to the political version that emerged from developments in the Assembly, the election of the President was made possible by an agreement reached in the final minutes between the Vetëvendosje Movement and PDK.
This last-minute pact appears to have paved the way for the conclusion of a process that had been held up by calculations among political forces and the need to secure the necessary votes.
Before the presidential vote, the Assembly also approved amendments on the Specialist Chambers
The first item on the agenda was the second reading of the draft law on supplementing and amending the Law on the Specialist Chambers.
The amendments were approved with 88 votes in favor, no votes against and no abstentions, before the Assembly moved on to the procedure for electing the new President.
End of the deadlock, but sealed by political bargaining
With Wednesday’s vote, Kosovo officially emerges from the deadlock over the post of President, at least on the institutional level.
However, the way the process was concluded — through a last-hour agreement — once again places the emphasis on the weight of political bargaining in the state’s highest-level decisions.
The election of Justina Shiroka Pula formally closes the process for the head of state in Kosovo.
She comes to the post after an extraordinary session and a political compromise that proved decisive for the vote in the Assembly.