The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from Kosovo

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This page contains a list of the greatest Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 19,576 Politicians, 9 of which were born in Kosovo. This makes Kosovo the birth place of the 154th most number of Politicians behind Sierra Leone, and Maldives.

Top 9

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Politicians of all time. This list of famous Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity.

Photo of Ibrahim Rugova

1. Ibrahim Rugova (1944 - 2006)

With an HPI of 71.83, Ibrahim Rugova is the most famous Politician.  His biography has been translated into 52 different languages on wikipedia.

Ibrahim Rugova (Albanian pronunciation: [ibɾahim ɾugova]; 2 December 1944 – 21 January 2006) was a Kosovo-Albanian politician, scholar, and writer, who served as the President of the partially recognised Republic of Kosova, serving from 1992 to 2000 and as President of Kosovo from 2002 until his death in 2006. He oversaw a popular struggle for independence, advocating a peaceful resistance to Yugoslav rule and lobbying for U.S. and European support, especially during the Kosovo War. He founded the political party Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) in 1989. The LDK, which had the support of 90% of the ethnic Albanian population of Kosovo, advocated for Kosovo's independence by peaceful means. The party established a shadow government that provided basic government and social services to the Kosovo Albanian population, including education and health care, in effect creating a parallel state. In May 1992, Rugova was elected President of this parallel state. In March 2002, with a United Nations mission administering Kosovo, he was elected President of Kosovo. He held this position until his death in January 2006, and was posthumously declared a Hero of Kosovo. He is sometimes referred to as Ati Kombit ("Father of the Nation") in Kosovo. He is also referred to as the Gandhi of the Balkans due to his strategy of non-violent resistance.

Photo of Đurađ Branković

2. Đurađ Branković (1377 - 1456)

With an HPI of 71.83, Đurađ Branković is the 2nd most famous Politician.  His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Đurađ Vuković Branković (Serbian Cyrillic: Ђурађ Вуковић Бранковић, Hungarian: Brankovics György; 1377 – 24 December 1456) served as the Serbian Despot from 1427 to 1456, making him one of the final rulers of medieval Serbia. In 1429, Branković was formally granted the Byzantine title of Despot by Emperor John VIII Palaiologos. Like many Christian rulers in Eastern Europe at the time, his rule was marked by Ottoman vassalage. Despite this, he often sought to strengthen Christian alliances while maintaining the appearance of loyalty to the Ottoman Empire. Branković is also remembered for constructing the Smederevo Fortress in the city of Smederevo, which became the last capital of medieval Christian Serbia. Despot Đurađ died in late 1456. Following his death Serbia, Bosnia, and Albania fell under the dominance of Sultan Mehmed II. During his reign Đurađ amassed a significant library of Serbian, Slavonic, Latin, and Greek manuscripts and made Smederevo a hub of Serbian culture. He was the first member of the Branković dynasty to hold the Serbian throne.

Photo of Behgjet Pacolli

3. Behgjet Pacolli (b. 1951)

With an HPI of 64.86, Behgjet Pacolli is the 3rd most famous Politician.  His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.

Behgjet Isa Pacolli (Gheg Albanian: [bɛhˈɟɛt paˈtsoɫi]; (born 30 August 1951) is an Albanian-Kosovan Swiss politician and businessman who was the 2nd president of Kosovo and also served as the first deputy prime minister of Kosovo between 2011 and 2014. He was also the minister of foreign affairs from 2017 to 2019 under the Ramush Haradinaj government. Pacolli was one of the signatories of the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence. He is the major shareholder of Mabetex Group, a Swiss-based construction and civil engineering company. Pacolli is also the president of the third biggest political party in Kosovo, the New Kosovo Alliance. He is among the world's richest ethnic Albanians. Pacolli has also acted as a mediator in hostage recovery situations.

Photo of Adem Demaçi

4. Adem Demaçi (1936 - 2018)

With an HPI of 62.69, Adem Demaçi is the 4th most famous Politician.  His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Adem Demaçi (pronounced [dɛmatʃi] ; 26 February 1936 – 26 July 2018) was a Kosovo Albanian author, politician, and human rights defender. He became notable during the breakup of Yugoslavia for suggesting the creation of Balkania in 1996, a hypothetical confederacy proposed as an independent successor state to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the Balkans.

Photo of Albin Kurti

5. Albin Kurti (b. 1975)

With an HPI of 60.25, Albin Kurti is the 5th most famous Politician.  His biography has been translated into 47 different languages.

Albin Kurti (Albanian: ['albin 'kuɾti]; born 24 March 1975) is a Kosovo Albanian politician who has been serving as Prime Minister of Kosovo since 2021, having previously held the office from February to June 2020. He came to prominence in 1997 as the vice-president of the University of Pristina student union, and a main organizer of non-violent student demonstrations of 1997 and 1998. Kurti then worked in Adem Demaçi's office when the latter became the political representative of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Kurti has been a member of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo since 2010 in three consecutive legislatures.

Photo of Isa Mustafa

6. Isa Mustafa (b. 1951)

With an HPI of 59.68, Isa Mustafa is the 6th most famous Politician.  His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Isa Mustafa ([iˈsa musˈtafa] ; born 15 May 1951) is a retired Kosovar politician. Mustafa was the mayor of Pristina from December 2007 to December 2013 and served as the prime minister of Kosovo between December 2014 and September 2017. He was the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) between 2010 and 2021.

Photo of Dragan Tomić

7. Dragan Tomić (1935 - 2022)

With an HPI of 59.23, Dragan Tomić is the 7th most famous Politician.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Dragan Tomić (Serbian Cyrillic: Драган Томић; 9 December 1935 – 21 June 2022) was a Serbian politician who served as the president of the National Assembly of Serbia from 1994 to 2001. He was a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia and was considered a loyal supporter of Slobodan Milošević. Tomić was director of RTV Politika, one of Serbia's main TV stations, and director of Jugopetrol AD, the state oil company. He was a member of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. After Milošević reached the end of his two allowed terms as President of Serbia and got himself elected as President of Serbia and Montenegro, Tomić by default became acting President of Serbia, from 23 July to 29 December 1997. In the second cabinet of the Prime Minister Mirko Marjanović, Tomić was the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, from 1998 to 2000. Tomić was closely tied to Milošević. A 2000 report by Germany's Federal Intelligence Service alleged that Milošević essentially ran a criminal operation, particularly after the 1992 sanctions on Yugoslavia caused "massive smuggling operations...controlled by Milošević and his cronies, who made vast profits from it"; Tomić was named as one of those cronies. Under Milošević's regime, Tomić led Jugopetrol when "fuel-smuggling was a multi-million dollar business", and "reportedly profited handsomely from the illicit oil that flowed into Serbia during sanctions". Serbian mobster and paramilitary leader Arkan gave Tomić a medal because he had provided gasoline for Arkan's Serb Volunteer Guard, a paramilitary unit suspected of war crimes and ethnic cleansing.

Photo of Fadil Vokrri

8. Fadil Vokrri (1960 - 2018)

With an HPI of 56.37, Fadil Vokrri is the 8th most famous Politician.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Fadil Avdullah Vokrri (23 July 1960 – 9 June 2018) was a Kosovan football administrator and formerly Yugoslav player. Arguably one of the greatest Kosovan footballers, he was the president of the Football Federation of Kosovo from 16 February 2008 until his death on 9 June 2018.

Photo of Glauk Konjufca

9. Glauk Konjufca (b. 1981)

With an HPI of 43.71, Glauk Konjufca is the 9th most famous Politician.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Glauk Konjufca (born 25 July 1981) is a Kosovo-Albanian activist, journalist and politician serving as speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo since March 2021. He was previously member of the Assembly, leader of the Vetëvendosje parliamentary group, speaker of the Assembly, minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as acting president of Kosovo until the election of Vjosa Osmani.

People

Pantheon has 9 people classified as politicians born between 1377 and 1981. Of these 9, 4 (44.44%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living politicians include Behgjet Pacolli, Albin Kurti, and Isa Mustafa. The most famous deceased politicians include Ibrahim Rugova, Đurađ Branković, and Adem Demaçi. As of April 2024, 9 new politicians have been added to Pantheon including Ibrahim Rugova, Đurađ Branković, and Behgjet Pacolli.

Living Politicians

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Deceased Politicians

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Newly Added Politicians (2024)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Politicians were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 3 most globally memorable Politicians since 1700.