Meet Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu, Kosovo’s 38-Year Old Female President
On Tuesday, the 4th of April, 2021, 38-year old Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu was sworn in as Kosovo’s new president, making her the youngest person to ever become the nation’s head of state and even the youngest in the world.
On Sunday, Kosovo’s Parliament elected her into this office for a five-year term while she took office on Tuesday in a ceremony with a guard of honour. Because of the pandemic, a more formal ceremony was avoided and she was simply handed the country’s constitution by the Acting President, Glauk Konjufca. Since the post-war period, Osmani is Kosovo’s second female leader. The first was Atifete Jahjaga who took office from April 2011 to April 2016.
From November 2020 till late March 2021, Osmani was acting president. She was acting in Former President Hashim Thaci’s stead after he resigned from office to face a war crimes indictment levelled against him. Earlier in 2020, a prosecutor had accused Mr. Thaci of being ‘criminally responsible’ for 100 murders, tortures, and forced disappearances during Kosovo’s independence war with Serbia in the late 1990s. Mr. Thaci’s reason for resigning was to ensure he did not face trial as a president so that he could continue to ‘defend the integrity of the state.’ Although he condemned all the accusations as baseless, he is still being held in detention in The Hague as they continue to deny his release.
Because Kosovo is a parliamentary republic, the post of the president remains largely ceremonial. But then, Osmani will play very important roles in foreign policy and as the commander of the armed forces. A high priority would be the continuation of normalization talks with Serbia, their war foe, even though Serbia’s government continues to reiterate that those talks are not a priority for them.
In case you were wondering, Kosovo is a self-declared independent state in the Balkan region of Europe. The country is a small, landlocked territory that only gained its independence from Serbia in 2008, although Serbia, Russia, and a few other countries have refused to recognize their declaration of independence since then. Kosovo has a very small population of a little over 1 million citizens. This, in addition to the high level of corruption and little contract enforcement, Kosovo is the second-poorest country in Europe.
Following the election, Osmani says, ‘“We will be eternally grateful to those who stand by Kosovo through freedom and independence and the establishment of the state. Today we ask them to stand by our side in our common goals for rapid integration into Euro-Atlantic structures, in the development of the economy, in ensuring equity, and in the general well-being of the country.’
Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu is Kosovo’s fifth serving president and her second female leader. She studied international law at the Pitt School of Law in the United States and even served as a Professor at the University of Prishtina at the American College of Kosovo before becoming a lawmaker in 2011. She is also married to Prindon Sadriu and they both have twin daughters.
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