TIRANA, June 30 – Erion Veliaj has been sworn in as Tirana’s new mayor, taking office after the new municipal council was formed Thursday.
“The real challenge for us is to plan for the Tirana of the next 10 or 20 years,” Mayor Veliaj said at the ceremony.
He said he would start work on an emergency list of the city’s needs, which include missing manhole covers and ruined sidewalks and roads.
The Socialist mayor will have four deputies, with three coming from smaller allied parties, officials said.
His swearing in ceremony was marred by a walkout of opposition councilors who protested the presence of a cabinet minister in the hall, saying it was a breach of local autonomy. The ruling majority has 45 councilors, while the opposition has 19.
Veliaj was elected Tirana’s new mayor by a comfortable margin in the June 21 elections.
Veliaj’s victory in Tirana, where nearly one in three Albanians live, was the crown jewel for the Socialist Party-led coalition of Prime Minister Edi Rama, which also won 45 out of 61 municipalities across the country.
Veliaj is a 35-year-old former civil society activist and the previous welfare affairs minister.
Many observers view him as Rama’s heir apparent at the helm of the Socialist Party.
