How Kosovo emerged from its political crisis and why this could trigger a conflict with EU
In the early hours of 7 October, the parliament of partially recognised Kosovo finally secured enough votes to elect a president. The country’s new head of state is Justina Shiroka Pula.
The move will allow Kosovo to avoid snap parliamentary elections, meaning the country has finally emerged from a prolonged political crisis.
However, there is a catch.
The votes needed to elect the president were secured through a highly contentious deal with the opposition. The agreement could create significant problems for Kosovo’s relations with the EU and further undermine the reconciliation process in the Balkans.
Read more in the article by Yurii Panchenko, co-founder of European Pravda: Crisis over, but at what cost? How Kosovo elected a president and whether it will clash with the EU.
Kosovo’s acute political crisis began after the parliamentary elections in February 2025. At the time, Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s Self-Determination party came first but lost its parliamentary majority. However, no other Kosovar party was willing to form a coalition with it.
The opposition, meanwhile, also failed to form a coalition.
The second consecutive snap election, held on 7 June, changed nothing: there were still not enough votes to elect a new president.
The Constitutional Court ruled that parliament had to elect a new head of state within 60 days, by 6 October inclusive.
But 6 October, the final day of the deadline set by the Constitutional Court, changed everything. Parliament finally elected a head of state.
Was Justina Shiroka Pula legitimately elected president? Surprisingly, some Kosovar politicians doubt that.
The reason is that the decisive vote took place 17 minutes after midnight – on 7 October.
Nevertheless, it appears that this timing was simply overlooked amid the relief of finally emerging from the prolonged political crisis.
Moreover, the choice of president appears to have been a fairly good one.
A lawyer by training, Justina Shiroka Pula was serving as president of the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts when she was elected. At the same time, she has considerable political experience. In 2008, she joined Kosovo’s first government after independence and served as minister of energy and mining until 2011. She then served as a member of parliament for the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) until 2014.
There is another interesting detail. The country’s new leader is Catholic, even though the vast majority of Kosovo’s population is Muslim. This could serve as a symbol of religious tolerance in Kosovo. Similarly, electing an opposition politician as president could benefit the government by helping to counter accusations that it is monopolising power.
But what prompted the opposition PDK to suddenly change its plans?
The answer lies in a bill that was also passed in the early hours of 7 October, as part of the same legislative package as the presidential election.
The bill was adopted in an attempt to help former president and architect of Kosovo’s statehood Hashim Thaçi. The former president was found guilty of mistreating prisoners and civilians, torture, and murder. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. More details about the verdict can be found in the article 25 years for a former president.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, which handed down the verdict, is formally part of the country’s domestic judicial system. The bill is intended to strengthen Thaçi’s legal protections.
Such a move is likely to seriously damage relations with the West, which considers independent judicial proceedings in cases involving war crimes to be of fundamental importance.
For now, senior EU officials have been cautious in their comments. They have focused more on the positive development of Kosovo emerging from its prolonged political crisis than on the circumstances surrounding that outcome.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine the European Union failing to respond to attempts to implement the provisions of this law.
This article was produced within the framework of MOST – Media Organisations for Stronger Transnational Journalism, a Journalism Partnership funded by the Creative Europe programme that supports independent media specializing in international reporting