The Mayor of Tirana spoke to Euronews Albania, after being reconfirmed for a third mandate after the May 14th local elections.
Asked why the citizens of Tirana did not vote for his opponent who promised free public transportation, Erion Veliaj said that citizens cannot be lured with populism.
According to him, it’s impressive how many democrats boycotted Sali Berisha in these elections.
“We can even propose a free-tax city, without rules, but the citizens do not want this. They can’t be bribed with populism. Buses can only be offered for free to the students. Meta and Berisha are two people who come to Tirana to spread poison. What happened and was impressive was the fact that even democrats did not want to go out and vote for Berisha, who has a problem with the United States,” said Veliaj.
He also had a comment about his opponent, Belind Këlliçi, who Veliaj called “a good guy who did mistakes in his campaign”.
“Belind is a good guy and I believe all five candidates were good people. He definitely made some mistakes. I believe he was actively sabotaged by Berisha and made a mistake by getting closer to Meta than Berisha. This backfired on him. I think he should have distanced his campaign from them. Berisha’s war with the USA led to the greatest punishment. What completely ruined the chances was the involvement of Ilir Meta,” the mayor added.
