Rama launches de facto campaign for Tirana partial elections

Prime Minister Edi Rama has moved quickly after the Tirana Municipal Council voted to dismiss Mayor Erion Veliaj, saying too much time had already been lost leaving the capital “without a head” for seven months. Within 24 hours of the council’s decision, Rama convened two high-level meetings — first in the morning with the acting mayor, the four deputy mayors, and the announced candidate Ogerta Manastirliu, and later in the afternoon with current and former Tirana MPs and the entire government cabinet at the Socialist Party headquarters.

Why is this important: Both meetings were seen as a de facto start of the campaign for Tirana’s partial elections, which will officially begin once the Central Election Commission (CEC) sets a date following the presidential decree.

What did he say: Rama defended the decision to remove Veliaj as necessary for the city.

“We undertook a debatable step in relation to Erion, but it was necessary for the municipality.”

The prime minister declined to comment on the opposition’s position or the justice system’s decision on the Veliaj case adding that “to comment on candidacies and caricatures would be a waste of time, whereas to comment on the decisions of the justice system would be a loss of our compass,” he said.

Rama said Manastirliu has broad support both within party structures and among the public, citing internal polling, and predicted that rivals “will emerge even more defeated” from the race, regardless of who they are — both in Tirana and in the other municipalities holding elections this fall.

Context: Rama criticized the deterioration of municipal services during Veliaj’s absence, starting with drinking water, and listing urban cleaning, public transport, nurseries, kindergartens, and freeing public spaces as areas below the required standard. The prime minister emphasized that the biggest issue is the inability to carry out public procurements and continue investments under an acting mayor:

“Tirana cannot wake up and go to sleep endlessly as a body without a head.”

Next steps: The Council of Ministers is set to meet Thursday to take the final step of formalizing Veliaj’s dismissal. Veliaj will have 15 days to appeal the decision to the Constitutional Court. Once the government notifies the President of the vacancy, the head of state must set the election date no earlier than 30 days and no later than 45 days from the notification.