Kosovo elects Justina Pula president in last-minute deal

Kosovo's parliament elected Justina Shiroka Pula as the country's new president on 7 October, according to AFP and Kosovo Online. The vote took place in a session that extended past the constitutional deadline, concluding minutes after midnight. Pula, a former energy minister and the first woman to chair the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts, secured the two-thirds majority required after Prime Minister Albin Kurti's government reached a deal with opposition lawmakers.

The election was complicated by a political crisis involving the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a war crimes court based in The Hague. The court had recently convicted four senior former fighters from the Kosovo Liberation Army, including ex-president Hashim Thaci, who received a 25-year sentence for crimes committed during the 1990s independence struggle against Serbia. These convictions provoked strong reactions among segments of the population who regard the former KLA leaders as heroes of the independence war, and protests followed the sentencing.

In the hours before the presidential vote, parliament passed an amendment that reduced the powers of the war crimes court. This measure was carefully negotiated to secure the votes needed to elect a president and avoid triggering a fourth round of snap elections in under two years, a situation that had repeatedly destabilised Kosovo's politics recently.