The President, a post of unity that the crisis produced

Since the post-war era, the election of a president has often produced crises and institutional instability. In almost all cases, the president has been a party-political figure. In some cases, even anti-constitutional, and in another, a unifier. There are still four days left for the new president to be elected, but Kosovo officially does not yet have a single name on the table.

The president is the head of state and represents the unity of the people, the Constitution states. But over two decades of practice show that this position involves calculations and compromises by political parties, which often produce not unity, but crisis.

Since the post-war period, the process produced a series of developments that reflected, in addition to disagreements between parties, a lack of institutional stability.

"Historically, the position of president has been part of political calculations. We can never say that we have had an elected president who has been the face of the unity of the citizens of Kosovo," said Artan Alijaj, a political expert.

After the first parliamentary elections, the then leader of the LDK, Ibrahim Rugova, who had a significant parliamentary majority, gave the smallest party in the Assembly, AAK, the post of prime minister to ensure the continuation of the president's office.

He was elected on March 4, 2002, but did not complete his term, as he died on January 21, 2006.

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20 days later, on 10 February 2006, Rugova was succeeded by his party colleague, Fatmir Sejdiu, who was elected with the votes of the LDK and its coalition partners. Sejdiu was reconfirmed in this position by the Assembly on 7 January 2008, to maintain institutional continuity, a few days before Kosovo's declaration of independence.

Sejdiu continued his mandate until September 27, 2010, when he decided to end it with resignation, following the Constitutional Court's decision that found that the president violated the new legal act of the state, while simultaneously holding the position of party chairman.

His resignation led to an institutional crisis, which resulted in early elections. On February 22, 2011, a new president was to be elected. The position was taken by the leader of the AKR, Behxhet Pacolli, with the votes of his party, the LDK and several other smaller parliamentary parties. He held the position for just over a month, after the Court found that the Constitution had been violated during his election, without a quorum. Pacolli ended his mandate by resigning on March 30, 2011.

To avoid institutional deadlock and new elections, with the mediation of the American ambassador in Pristina, Christopher Dell, a proposal for the new president was sent to the deputies in an envelope for a week.

Atifete Jahjaga was a non-partisan figure who on April 7th received the votes of the LDK, PDK, and AKR to become the first female president. Until then, she was the only president to see her term through to the end, on April 7th, 2016.

At that time, the Government had the election of the new president on the table. The first political force was Hashim Thaçi's PDK, while the second was Isa Mustafa's LDK. Their coalition, formed two years ago, secured Thaçi the post of president and Mustafa that of prime minister. However, Thaçi's election was made with some difficulties. Mustafa did not control all the deputies of his party to vote for his political rival of both periods, the one before and after the war. In the session for his election, between the rounds there were breaks, meetings and negotiations between Thaçi and Mustafa with deputies. Some of them demonstrated freedom in exercising their mandate, while others demonstrated submission to the party's position.

Thaçi was elected on February 26, 2016, with 71 votes in favor, in the third round. He did not complete his term, as he resigned on November 5, 2020 to appear before the Specialist Chambers in The Hague, where he would face war crimes charges.

The post of president remained vacant for a month and a half after the government was overthrown, leading to another early election that would produce, in addition to a new government, a president.

Vjosa Osmani was elected after Thaçi, but first had to be part of an intensive field campaign with the LVV, whose trust she sought for the position. The LVV won the parliamentary majority and the LDK secured the rest of the votes and she was elected president on April 4, 2021.

Its mandate ends on April 4. The election of the new president, according to the Constitution, must be held 30 days before this date. And although there are still 4 days to avoid exceeding the deadline that would lead to another pair of elections, LVV has not yet released any presidential name, despite Osmani's expressed willingness for another term.

So far, Kurti has met twice with the PDK leader and once with the LDK leader to reach an agreement on the presidency.