Prime Minister of Albania congratulated the Kosovo people on electing Vjosa Osmani as the new President but avoided mentioning her name.
“Electing the new President of Kosovo yesterday by the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, concludes the institutional framework of the country and guarantees the necessary stability to focus on the work for the realization of the governing program,” Rama wrote on Twitter.
In December 2020, there were clashes between Rama and Osmani.
During a visit to Albania in December, as the Acting President, Osmani publicly asked the Albanian parliament to pass a resolution to condemn Serbia’s genocide in Kosovo and for the government to remove the toll on the highway connecting the two countries.
Rama slammed her for allegedly bringing issues of her country’s domestic politics to Albania.
Responding to journalists’ questions during a press conference then, Rama said that his “Socialist Party has passed fifteen resolutions […] to condemn the genocide, ethnic cleansing, massacres.”
“The history of Kosovo’s war for freedom, in Kosovo and Albania, does not begin with Acting President Vjosa Osmani, nor with Prime Minister in waiting Albin Kurti,” he slammed at both leaders back then.
Last year there were also disagreements between Rama and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti during the short-lived first Kurti government.
Rama vouched for the strengthening of regional relations and teamed up with Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic to create a common economic area in the region. Kurti, on the other hand, demanded from Rama to focus on strengthening bilateral relations between Kosovo and Albania, and push for Serbia to face crimes committed in Kosovo.
Vjosa Osmani was Kurti’s She was elected with 71 votes in favor on Sunday.
None of the two candidates – Vjosa Osmani and Nasuf Bejta – were able to get 80 votes in favor in the first two rounds of voting. In the third and last round, Osmani got 71 votes, 10 more than the necessary 61 needed. Bejta received no votes, while 11 were found invalid.
