Justina Shiroka Pula became Kosovo president in the first minutes of Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, after lawmakers in Pristina elected her with 81 votes in the 120-seat parliament, one more than the 80 required, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. The last-minute deal averted parliament’s automatic dissolution and another early election.
The vote capped a day of deadlock between Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s governing Vetevendosje movement and the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK). It came alongside a disputed package of changes to the law governing the Hague-based war crimes court that tries former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders.
A secret ballot six minutes before the deadline
The secret ballot began just six minutes before a midnight constitutional deadline, according to RFE/RL. Shiroka Pula won in the first round and was sworn in shortly afterward. “This mandate does not belong to one person alone. It belongs to our citizens, our institutions, and the state for which so many generations sacrificed,” she told lawmakers.
Some experts noted that the process did not end until 12 minutes after midnight, which could open the door to a legal challenge, though none was immediately announced. Kurti proposed Shiroka Pula late in the evening in his third offer to PDK leader Bedri Hamza, who accepted her candidacy and nominated Eliza Hoxha as the opposing candidate. Without a president, parliament would have been dissolved, a scenario that other European capitals are confronting, as in the Spain snap election set for Nov. 29.
War crimes court amendments behind the deal
Immediately before the presidential vote, parliament approved amendments to the law on the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in a second and final reading, with 88 votes in favor. The PDK had insisted that the court changes pass first; Kurti had initially demanded the reverse.
The amendments sharply narrow the court’s jurisdiction, cap prison sentences at 15 years, require sentences to be served in Kosovo and make people convicted by final judgments eligible for presidential pardons, RFE/RL reported. They also limit the period the court covers to July 1, 1999, through Dec. 31, 2000, and restrict its jurisdiction to offenses directly linked to alleged organ-trafficking operations identified in a 2011 Council of Europe report. Legal experts have warned that Kosovo must respect its international commitments and that the changes could face constitutional review.
The PDK proposed the changes after the Sept. 16 convictions of four former KLA leaders. Former President Hashim Thaçi and Jakup Krasniqi received 25-year sentences, Kadri Veseli 18 years and Rexhep Selimi 13 years. All four were acquitted of some other charges, and their defense teams have said they will appeal.
Who is Kosovo president Justina Shiroka Pula
Shiroka Pula, 73, was born in Pristina in 1953 and is Kosovo’s third woman president, after Atifete Jahjaga and Vjosa Osmani, according to Al Jazeera. An economist, she studied at the University of Pristina and in Zagreb, worked briefly at the National Bank of Kosovo and spent a long career as a professor at the University of Pristina. Last December she became the first woman elected to lead the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts.
She also has a political record. She served as minister of energy and mining from 2008 to 2011 and as a PDK member of parliament from 2011 to 2014. Donika Emini, a research fellow at the University of Graz, told Al Jazeera the election was “a politically necessary compromise to restore institutional functioning,” but said she would not read it as proof that polarization had been resolved.
Protests and the road ahead
The vote followed about 20 days of protests demanding passage of the court legislation. On Oct. 5, some demonstrators threw glass bottles and pyrotechnics near parliament, and police used tear gas and water cannons, RFE/RL reported. Police said six officers were injured, 11 civilians sought medical care and three protesters were taken to a police station. Kosovo’s Police Inspectorate opened a preliminary investigation into police conduct. Street protests have also tested governments elsewhere in Europe this week, including the France high school protests.
Kosovo’s president has limited executive powers but represents the country at home and abroad and can mediate when parties are deadlocked. Shiroka Pula begins a five-year term with backing from both Vetevendosje and the PDK. The Assembly of Kosovo published the results of both votes.