Will he run for a second presidential term? Here's how Osmani responds

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said on Friday that the decision to run or not for another term will be made "only taking into account the interests" of Kosovo and its citizens.

President Osmani's five-year mandate ends on April 7, 2026.

"From next year we will discuss this issue. Throughout my political career, I have always worked with the interest of Kosovo and its citizens in mind. Never, any of my political decisions have been based on calculations about where I will be, but only where Kosovo and its citizens will be," Osmani told the media in Pristina.

Political experts have said that potential coalitions after the February 9 parliamentary elections could also include the issue of the position of the president of Kosovo.

The position of president of Kosovo is largely ceremonial, but he plays a leading role in foreign policy and as commander of the armed forces.

Demush Shasha from the Kosovo Institute for European Policy said that, if the election-winning party, the Vetevendosje Movement, forms a new government with any of the Albanian opposition parties, then the issue of the post of Kosovo president will be on the "political bargaining table."

Osmani assumed office on April 4, 2021, following early parliamentary elections held on February 14, 2021.

With her Guxo party, which was on a joint list with Vetëvendosje, Osmani was the most voted person in those elections, with over 300 thousand votes.

She was elected president by the Kosovo Assembly in the third round of voting, after receiving 71 votes out of 82 deputies present at her election session.

According to the Constitution of Kosovo, the president of Kosovo cannot hold more than two terms.

The Kosovo Assembly must vote on the election of the president with two-thirds of the votes of the 120 deputies it has in total.

If the presidential candidate does not receive these votes in the first two rounds, in the third round he is elected with the votes of half of the deputies. /REL/