More than seven months after his arrest, Erion Veliaj was dismissed from his post as mayor of Tirana on Tuesday by the city's Municipal Council, in a move that will trigger new mayoral elections and represents another blow to the career of a politician once seen as a potential contender for the leadership of the Socialist Party.
In a rare show of consensus, the ruling Socialist Party and the opposition Democratic Party voted in favor of Veliaj's dismissal on Tuesday.
The Municipal Council acted on a request made by the Prime Minister of Albania and leader of the Socialists, Edi Rama. When he announced the initiative two weeks ago, Rama also presented former Minister of Education, Ogerta Manastirliu, as a candidate for the post of mayor.
During the session, opposition MP Dorian Teliti criticized the process, saying: “We demanded that the mayor be heard today. Even someone sentenced to life imprisonment has this right.” He stressed, however, that the opposition had been demanding Veliaj's dismissal for four months.
Leading the session, Socialist councilor Megi Fino said that this move reflected "an urgent need for new leadership" and did not constitute an admission of guilt in the ongoing criminal proceedings against Veliaj, which she said was the duty of the courts to decide.
Lost importance
Experts say Veliaj has lost his political relevance and has seen his career collapse since February, when prosecutors knocked on his door and escorted him into custody.
“Veliaj did not resign as mayor because he hopes to return to office sooner or later, but because he wants to protect himself politically in the face of investigations,” Tirana-based political analyst Ergys Mërtiri told BIRN.
“During this time, he has attempted to threaten prosecutors, intimidate them, obstruct investigations by appearing as a man of power,” he added.
Veliaj has been in custody since his arrest on February 10 and is unable to exercise his duties. He is accused of corruption, money laundering and concealment of assets.
Veliaj has denied the charges and claimed that his arrest was unjust and unfounded. In a letter sent to the City Council on Monday, he requested to be present during the meeting to dismiss him, but his request was denied on Tuesday, when the city's Legal Affairs Committee decided to put the dismissal on the agenda.
Veliaj claimed that he had not been officially informed about the initiative for his dismissal.
"Even today, one day before the Municipal Council's decision, I have not been officially informed by this council about holding a meeting in which a decision will be made regarding my dismissal as Mayor," said Veliaj.
"I have not been given the opportunity to defend myself, to provide explanations and to be heard by this collegial body, neither physically nor in writing, especially when, being in detention, my options are limited," he added.
Veliaj entered politics after several years of activism, founding G-99, a party that failed to gain support in the 2009 elections. He then joined the Socialist Party when the latter was in opposition.
He became a minister in 2013 and mayor of Tirana in 2015 — the biggest prize in Albanian politics a young politician can dream of — a powerful, coveted position with few control mechanisms.
During a decade in power in Tirana, he experienced difficult moments, including several investigations where prosecutors failed to find evidence of corruption or abuse of power.
Veliaj's position in the Socialist Party as a potential successor to Rama was strengthened after the fall of Saimir Tahiri, one of his main rivals, in 2017. Tahiri's problems began when Italian authorities uncovered a cannabis trafficking ring from Albania that was suspected of having his support.
He served a prison sentence on charges of abuse of office, but was acquitted of the more serious charges of international drug trafficking. However, his political career was over. So was his rivalry with Veliaj. Today, Tahiri is involved in construction businesses, the permits for which were signed by Veliaj himself.
But other rivals within the Socialist Party did not disappear. Tahiri was replaced by others.
Meanwhile, in July 2023, a compromising email arrived in the email of the Special Prosecution Office Against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK), containing implicating information.
In December of last year, Veliaj was summoned for questioning in this matter. The media suggested that the apparent accuracy of the information sent by a person with the pseudonym “Nesti Angoni” indicated access to state data — and therefore, the possibility that clashes within the ruling Socialist Party had landed Veliaj in trouble.
No changes are expected.
Albanian legislation provides for three scenarios in which a mayor can be dismissed – in case of violation of the Constitution or laws, when there is a final court decision against him, or when he fails to appear for office for three consecutive months.
Three months after Veliaj's arrest, the opposition Democratic Party demanded his dismissal, but this request was not accepted by the ruling Socialist Party.
For the Albanian public, the question is not whether Veliaj will object, but how far he is willing to go.
Since his arrest, Veliaj has not remained silent. Initially, he launched attacks on the judge and prosecutors in his case. Then, he launched an online campaign to gain public sympathy.
Following Thursday's dismissal, he may take the matter to the Constitutional Court, claiming that the dismissal is illegal because he was not present to present his claims.
"However, all of this seems not to have worked. He has remained in prison, even though he has appealed at all levels of the court," said Mërtiri.
Mërtiri believes that Veliaj will appeal the dismissal, but this will not change anything and could mark the final end of his political career.
"Of course he will continue to appeal the dismissal, but I do not believe that this will have any effect. Moreover ... it seems that the legal procedure will go to the end. In this way, I think that Veliaj has finally left politics, with no possibility of return," stressed Mërtiri.
Rigels Xhemollari from the "Civic Stability" organization in Tirana agrees that Veliaj's return to the political scene is impossible.
“His political end came at the moment of his arrest and with the exposure of his family’s luxury. Rama spared him for the sake of the election campaign and ended [his career] after the May 11 elections,” Xhemollari told BIRN.
“He will never return to the political scene, due to the high number of criminal offenses he is accused of,” he concluded. /BIRN/
