Kosovo Elects Economist Shiroka Pula as President, Ending Months-Long Political Crisis

Kosovo's parliament ended months of political deadlock by electing Justyna Shiroka Pula as the country's new president in the early hours of October 7, 2026. The 72-year-old economist and head of the Academy of Sciences and Arts received 81 of the 120 parliamentary votes — one more than the required minimum — becoming Kosovo's third female president. The deal was brokered between Prime Minister Albin Kurti's Vetevendosje party and the opposition PDK, but came at a cost: parliament simultaneously passed amendments limiting sentences for KLA war crimes to 15 years and allowing them to be served in Kosovo. That move had triggered street protests and clashes days earlier, after the Hague Specialist Chambers had handed down lengthy sentences to former KLA commanders including ex-president Hashim Thaci. Failure to elect a president by the constitutional deadline of October 6 would have triggered Kosovo's fourth parliamentary election in under two years. Outgoing president Vjosa Osmani expressed hope that the continuity of female leadership would continue.