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Vjosa Osmani
Photo: VALDRIN XHEMAJ / EPA
Vjosa Osmani is the new President of Kosovo.
The 38-year-old lawyer was elected head of state by the parliament in Pristina on Sunday at the suggestion of Prime Minister Albin Kurti's ruling party Vetevendosje.
It received 71 votes and thus the majority in the parliament with 120 seats.
82 MPs were present, 11 cast invalid votes.
On Saturday the election failed due to the boycott of the opposition and the Serbian minority; if it failed again, early elections would have been threatened again.
After a blockade lasting several hours, the parliamentary session was postponed to Sunday.
The failure at the first attempt was a setback for the new Kosovar head of government Albin Kurti.
Predecessor Thaci resigned after being charged with war crimes
The office became vacant in November 2020 after Head of State Hashim Thaci resigned on charges brought by the Kosovo Special Tribunal.
Thaci has to answer before the court in The Hague for alleged war crimes in the independence war of the Kosovar Albanians against Serbia (1998-1999).
After Thaci's resignation, Osmani took over his office on a provisional basis, in her capacity as President of Parliament at the time.
The new president was deputy chairwoman of the then ruling and now opposition party LDK (Liberal Conservatives) until June 2020.
Osmani was ousted after a dispute within her own party.
In the parliamentary election in February of this year, she entered the list of Kurti's left reform party.
hej / dpa