Meet some of the novices entering Kosovo’s Assembly.

Singers, lawyers, teachers, actors, journalists, economists, doctors, municipal mayors and even professional politicians, those who have never held another professional role, are amongst Kosovo’s 120 newly elected Assembly members.

Having a broad-base of professional experiences, as well as backgrounds and ages, is often seen as the democratic ideal; the representatives of the people, should be just that, representative.

Among the representatives from all walks of life entering the biggest stage of Kosovo’s domestic political theater there is plenty of fresh blood, with more than one-quarter of representatives being sworn is as deputies for the very first time. With 16 more deputies than in the previous legislature, the largest cohort of first-time deputies inevitably comes from the party that made the biggest gains on June 11, Vetevendosje, while Ramush Haradinaj’s AAK has no first-time deputies.

But what motivates these newly elected deputies to stand for public office? What responsibility do they feel toward their party and toward the citizens that elected them? And what issues motivate them as they embark upon their political journeys in Kosovo’s highest level of legislature? K2.0 met with some of the new class of 2017 to find out.

See at: http://kosovotwopointzero.com/en/first-time-deputies/