Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu was born on 17 May 1982 and is a Kosovan jurist and politician serving as the 5th and current President of Kosovo since 4 April 2021.
28 Facts About Vjosa Osmani
Vjosa Osmani worked as an advisor to the then president of Kosovo Fatmir Sejdiu before she was elected to the Assembly.
Vjosa Osmani held the position of Speaker of the Assembly from February 2020 to March 2021, and served as acting president between November 2020 and March 2021 after the resignation of President Hashim Thaci.
Vjosa Osmani successfully ran on an anti-corruption platform and has expressed a desire to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
Since taking office, Vjosa Osmani has returned the flag of Dardania as the official symbol of the presidency.
Vjosa Osmani was born on in Mitrovica, then a part of Yugoslavia to ethnic Albanian parents.
Vjosa Osmani grew up with four siblings, and completed her primary and secondary education in her hometown.
Vjosa Osmani was a teenager during the Kosovo War, and she once stated that she "can still feel" the barrel of an AK-47 rifle that a soldier forced into her mouth after her home in Mitrovica had been raided.
Vjosa Osmani earned her bachelor's degree in law from the University of Prishtina in Kosovo.
Vjosa Osmani continued with graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, earning a master's degree in law in 2005 and a doctorate in juridical science in 2015.
Vjosa Osmani has been a teaching assistant at the University of Pristina, a lecturer at RIT Kosovo, and a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
Vjosa Osmani had served as legal counsel and foreign policy advisor to the president.
Vjosa Osmani was a member of the Assembly of Kosovo for three terms, and once received the largest number of votes for a female politician in Kosovan parliamentary history.
Vjosa Osmani contributed to the independence of Kosovo, as the president's representative for the Constitution Commission, the body that prepared the Kosovan constitution.
Vjosa Osmani represented Kosovo in a case at the International Court of Justice, where she defended the legality of Kosovo's independence.
Vjosa Osmani served as the vice-chair of the Committee on Constitutional Reforms in Kosovo.
Vjosa Osmani boycotted the presidential election in 2016, in which PDK leader Hashim Thaci was elected president as part of the coalition agreement.
Vjosa Osmani was viewed as a possible prime minister of Kosovo by the LDK in the 2019 snap parliamentary election.
Vjosa Osmani lost the election to Albin Kurti, leader of the left-wing anti-establishment party Vetevendosje, and had received 176,016 votes.
On, Vjosa Osmani was removed from her position as her party's deputy leader, after LDK leader Mustafa called for her dismissal due to her public opposition of decisions made by the party.
Vjosa Osmani later quit the LDK altogether on, stating that the party had left her no choice, but adding that she would return if the party were reformed.
In 2020, Vjosa Osmani was appointed acting president of Kosovo after President Thaci resigned following an indictment by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor's Office in The Hague.
In preparation for the 2021 Kosovan parliamentary election, Vjosa Osmani announced the founding of her own political party, Guxo, on.
Vjosa Osmani won 71 of the votes, while 11 votes were declared invalid, and was sworn in for a five-year term later that day, becoming Kosovo's second female president.
Vjosa Osmani said that she hoped to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia, while calling for Belgrade to apologize for the war that led to Kosovo's declaration of independence and to prosecute those who had committed war crimes.
The number of visits per country where President Vjosa Osmani traveled as per 6 of May 2023 are:.
On 28 February 2022, Vjosa Osmani was awarded a Honoris Causa from Ankara University.
In 2012, Vjosa Osmani married Prindon Sadriu, an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.