{
  "id": 12782898,
  "title": "Kosovo lawmakers elect Justina Pula as the country's new president in late-night vote to avert snap election",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/kosovo-lawmakers-elect-justina-pula-as-the-countrys-new-president-in",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-08T04:14:57.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Euronews",
    "slug": "euronews",
    "url": "https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/08/kosovo-lawmakers-elect-justina-pula-as-the-countrys-new-president-in-late-night-vote-to-av"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In a tense late-night parliamentary session, Kosovo lawmakers elected economist and academic Justina Shiroka Pula as the nation's new president, averting a potential snap election. This decisive move came just before the constitutional deadline, which would have forced early parliamentary elections, a situation that had plagued Kosovo's political landscape for over 19 months and led to two earlier elections.\n\nShiroka Pula's election was a pivotal moment in a political crisis that threatened to overshadow Kosovo's recent independence. The small Balkan nation had faced legislative deadlock as well as international criticism following a recent verdict by The Hague-based war crimes court. The court had convicted four Kosovo wartime rebel leaders, including the country's former president Hashim Thaci, sentencing them to between 13 and 25 years in prison. Kosovo had vehemently opposed the verdict, arguing that the KLA, led by Thaci prior to his political career, had fought against Serbian oppression during the 1998-99 independence struggle.\n\nThe extraordinary parliamentary session saw Shiroka Pula secure 81 votes out of the 120-seat parliament. Despite the presence of over 13,000 protesters outside, demanding the passage of a law that would limit the powers of the Hague war crimes court, Shiroka Pula emerged victorious. She recently served as the president of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo and will become the Balkan nation's third female president since post-war independence.\n\nAs Kosovo's head of state, Shiroka Pula's role is largely ceremonial, though she does play a crucial part in foreign policy and serves as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. For her law limiting the powers of the Hague court to become binding, she must endorse it after taking the oath of office. In her inaugural address, Shiroka Pula expressed, \"Today, I accept with great honor and full responsibility the duty of President of the Republic of Kosovo.\" She emphasized that \"this mandate does not belong to one person alone, it belongs to our citizens, our institutions, and the state for which many generations have sacrificed.\"",
  "summary": "The late night parliamentary session effectively ends a more than 19-month legislative deadlock in the country. Pula’s election to the largely symbolic post of president makes her the third female to hold that office since Kosovo’s post-war independence from Serbia.",
  "key_points": [
    "Justina Pula elected as Kosovo's new president in late-night vote",
    "Averts potential snap election before constitutional deadline",
    "Shiroka Pula, economist and academic, becomes Balkan nation's 3rd female president"
  ],
  "editors_take": "The election of Justina Shiroka Pula as Kosovo's president averts a snap election, stabilizes the country's political landscape, and allows it to move past a 19-month period of legislative deadlock and international criticism.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}