Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani becomes president in the name of women: “Never stop dreaming”

“All women who are watching us right now should remember the following: you have the right to get where you want, wherever you dream of being. Never stop moving forward, because all your dreams can come true.” It took her three turbulent votes, but in the end Vjosa Osmani he made it. Holding back his tears, on Sunday evening in the Pristina Parliament he made his debut during his first speech as President of the Republic of Kosovo. A 38-year-old jurist, Osmani has come to sit on the highest chair in the small Balkan country after years of struggles. “I will strengthen the state and the rule of law,” he continued in his inauguration speech. Which, translated, means eradicating the corruption that gangrens a very young but already rotten country.

Born in Mitrovica in 1982, the “Berlin of the Balkans” with the Serbian community in the north and the Kosovar community in the south, divided by the Ibar River, Osmani is a lecturer in international law. Fifth president of the small Balkan Republic, she is the second woman to hold the office: from 2011 to 2016 the first was Atifefe Jahjaga. After the first two calls, you failed on Saturday due to the boycott of the parties dominated by the former guerrillas of the KLA (the Liberation Army) and the Serbian minority, on Sunday evening at the third attempt the Parliament elected her with a simple majority: 71 votes. Thus avoiding a further stalemate and the specter of yet another early elections.

Married, mother of twin girls, she speaks five languages ​​(Albanian, Serbian, English, Turkish and Spanish). After graduating from the University of Pristina, she went to the United States, to Pittsburgh, to complete her studies. She entered politics at a very young age: from 2006 to 2010 she was the former president’s chief of staff Fatmir Sejdiu, being part of the commission that had the task of drafting the new Kosovar Constitution.

Gradually the party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK, center-right), which was of Ibrahim Rugova, the “father” of the nation. In the 2017 elections, despite being 81st on the list, she is the second most voted of the whole party. From there his path is downhill. Leader of the LDK in the elections two years ago, she became the first female speaker of Parliament. Last November the accusations against the President of the Republic Hashim Thaci for war crimes that brought the former Uck guerrilla (nom de guerre “The snake”) to The Hague to defend himself, they catapulted Osmani into the role of interim head of state. In the meantime, however, relations with his party have deteriorated. In June she had been expelled and so she decided to found her own movement: “Guxo” (Osate). And in the last elections, those of February 14, he broke all records: 300,788 preferences, the most voted politician ever in the history of Kosovo.

Symbol of a new generation determined to write an end to corruption and governments dominated by the old guerrillas of the Liberation Army who managed the country since 2008 – the year of independence from Serbia – now Osmani will work in tandem with the new government ( very female: six ministers out of 15 and a third of the deputies in the whole Parliament) of the premier Albin Kurti, the former rebellious student, a left-wing nationalist, who on February 14 won the elections hands down with over 50% of the votes. Together they will have to try to revive a country hit by the pandemic (1,900 deaths and collapsing hospitals), restore hope to young people who emigrate en masse every year, revive the economy of this tiny nation of less than two million inhabitants with an average income of 500 euros and skyrocketing unemployment that exceeds 50%.