Erjon Veliaj’s political funeral at the SPAK offices showed that the servility with which he pampered Edi Rama’s hearth over the years was not a character deformity, but rather a defense mechanism with which the 45-year-old mayor of Tirana believed he would escape the paranoia of the political and criminal power that runs the Socialist Party. Whenever he was given the opportunity, Veliaj unabashedly displayed his humility and loyalty to his boss, to remove any doubt that one day, the power that Rama generously bestowed upon him would be used to backfire on him.
But even though he dragged on for almost 12 years to grow politically and financially and when everyone believed that he had succeeded in projecting himself as the future leader of the Socialists, the investment collapsed with a drop of a pencil.
Today, even the most blind followers of Veliaj agree that he has nothing left but questions about whether he should return from the United States of America, or make the same mistakes that others made before him.
However, during 2024, Veliaj should have taken the signals coming to him from Edi Rama seriously. With his behavior, the prime minister has predicted the fate he had assigned to little “Lali”, but he has refused to read it.
Unexpected criticism in the SP Assembly
At the beginning of this year, a ruthless mechanism of persecution began to move in the Socialist Party, reminiscent of the dark times of the dictatorship.
The greetings of former friends suddenly cool off, Rama’s gaze falls on the one who until yesterday was treated as a beloved member of the political family. Private meetings become rarer while public criticism increases. When asked specifically about the Veliaj case in the media, Rama grinds out answers without an answer and displays an ambiguity in his stance, which does not bode well.
Not that Edi Rama had been warmer in the past with Veliaj. On the contrary, on one occasion, during a joint visit to a family damaged by the earthquake, he ordered him to personally go and paint the stairs of the palace at 5 in the morning. Another moment he had publicly embarrassed him, when he insistently ordered him to urgently find a lost cow for a villager in Farka. Stories like these Veliaj had swallowed without thinking twice.
The problem in 2024 was elsewhere. SPAK had just taken Taulant Tushe, his closest collaborator in the municipality, and locked him in a prison cell. The municipality offices were being regularly raided by BKH agents. Employees were afraid to sign and things were heading towards a stalemate.
Under these conditions, every statement by Rama against Veliaj was a signal for the SPAKists to go further with their pressures.
This was the context in which Lapsi.al read the remark that Rama made to Erjon Veliaj at the meeting of the national assembly of the Socialist Party at the beginning of last year. The date of the assembly was February 11, that is, 3 days after Nesti Angoni had submitted to SPAK the evidence with confidential data against Erjon Veliaj.
In the eyes of dozens of socialists, Rama turned to Erjon with the words: “What are these meetings for, you are doing nothing, you have become like an NGO”.
Rama was dissatisfied with several meetings that Veliaj had held with the socialists at the grassroots level. In reality, there was nothing concrete about the elections in these meetings, but Veliaj needed them to show the SPAK investigators that he was still a valuable asset for the Socialist Party of Tirana. Of course, the meetings also served to appear as ready as possible for loyalty and service to Edi Rama with public messages of the type “I publicly promise that this will be the campaign where I will commit even more, I will work even harder, not only for Edi Rama and the Socialist Party, but for the fact that this political force and its leader have transformed Albania in an unimaginable way”.
The point is that when Rama made it clear to him that he was fed up with servility and that he was dissatisfied with Veliaj, he took this as a momentary dissatisfaction and not as a turn that would lead to abandonment by the head of the majority.
Instead of preparing for an even worse scenario, Veliaj publicly attacked the “pencils and pens”, who according to him were looking for a conflict and that they were becoming “calloused knees” by praying for an internal clash in the Socialist Party.
Exclusion from the ceremony with Blinken
The naivety of “Lali Eri” does not end there. When the troubles for him had just begun in February, the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, came to Tirana. The visit was interpreted at the time as Rama’s need to find a middle ground with the justice reform.
At the reception ceremony for Blinken at the Tirana pyramid, Veliaj was not invited. But somehow he managed to stop him in a few seconds for a handshake and some photos with the Secretary of State.
It’s just that those seconds that Blinken spent for photos with Veliaj were a few more seconds that Edi Rama had to wait inside the pyramid premises and then it was reported that this delay did not please the Prime Minister at all.
It must be said that at the beginning of this year, when BKH agents were entering and leaving the offices of the Tirana Municipality, Veliaj’s articulation in public was still within the party line. He continued to talk about the “new justice” as a success story achieved by the Socialist Party.
“The new justice, like everything new, will be anathematized by some, praised by us,” Veliaj said in media interviews during February. It is understood that at that time he was still unaware of what was happening.
“Support” with semicolons
At the end of March, SPAK deepened the attack on the Municipality of Tirana. Two other directors of the municipality, both very close to Erjon Veliaj, were arrested for the “5D” company affair.
Maringlen Qato and Redi Molla, together with Taulant Tushe, who was already in prison, had created a construction firm with which they themselves won the municipality’s tenders. They had invested tens of millions of euros in hotels and businesses with their family members.
Veliaj saw himself exposed. It was clear that sooner or later the SPAK investigators would get to him.
Sensing a conspiracy being hatched behind his back, he also dragged Edi Rama into the game. The wounded mayor of Tirana needed to know whether the prime minister had a hand in this SPAK attack on him or not.
Therefore, in a public appearance, when he explained his position against the arrested directors, Veliaj also dragged Edi Rama into the game when he used the same alibi to justify himself that Rama had used to justify himself in the case of Arben Ahmetaj, Lefter Koka, Ilir Beqaj, etc.
“How is it possible that Edi Rama did not know this and how could it happen that even his deputy, a person who is currently wanted by the justice system, commits these great crimes for which he is accused, without the blessing of the prime minister?” was the question that Veliaj cunningly repeated.
The statement also constituted a novelty in the relationship between the two. For the first time, it was Veliaj who was dragging Rama into a debate, even using him as a pawn for his own dirty work. In the past, just the opposite had happened.
Rama’s reaction came a few hours later. It seemed as if he made an important concession when he said that he agreed with everything Veliaj had said, “with a full stop.”
But he had only one concern; that any blow that came from SPAK within the party or the administration should be accepted.
“We do not experience SPAK’s attacks on anyone in the executive ranks, at any level of government, who has violated the law and betrayed our mission in service of this country and this people as a disaster, nor as collective guilt, but as an invaluable aid in a fight against corruption, which until yesterday we were unable to do as well as we should, precisely because the arm of independent justice was missing,” Rama said.
The next day, Veliaj appeared in the media euphoric and admitted that he felt good about the support that Rama had given him, who had supported him for the apples and pears that his subordinates were eating behind his back.
“I didn’t expect it and of course, I was pleasantly surprised and appreciated it. I believe that in a team, where the team captain gives you support that I hadn’t asked for, I don’t deny that I definitely felt good that we share this vision and say yes, we don’t treat people like rags”
Veliaj had no way of knowing that since February, he and his family members were being verified by another file, the data of which had been brought by the so-called Nesti Angoni. He had no way of knowing that his travels 10 years ago were being investigated by SPAK along with the banking transactions of his wife, Ajola Xoxa, his brother, Arbër Veliaj, and even his mother and mother-in-law.
But did Edi Rama know about this file? Did the prime minister have information about the actions of the so-called Nesti Angoni? Did Rama know that the fatal blow to Veliaj was not coming from the apples and pears that the directors of the Municipality had eaten, but from the occult relationship with the money laundering line of Elman Abule?
We do not know the answers yet. But the speed with which Rama agreed to play Veliaj’s game by giving him the alibi of the directors’ file was surprising. Rama at that time only asked that SPAK not be attacked. While another investigation was progressing to the detriment of Erjon.
Rama-Dumani Coordination to Call His Bluff
Only when SPAK’s summons for the Tirana incinerator affair arrived, Erjon Veliaj must have felt that the ground was slipping from under his feet. By that moment, justice had reached even his close associates.
On April 30, he stayed in the investigators’ office for 7 hours. On the way out, he tried to pull himself together and, to show that he had the situation under control, called the prosecutors “colleagues”.
The answer came immediately from Altin Dumani, who rarely issued a statement in the media to call his bluff.
“He was sent a summons on Wednesday of last week to be questioned in his capacity as a declarant as a person who has knowledge of the circumstances of the Tirana incinerator affair,” Dumani said.
As if this were not enough, a few days later, Edi Rama would publicly humiliate him once again. In an attempt to get closer, Veliaj invited him to a ceremony to honor Ali Ahmeti.
“Only Ali Ahmeti could bring me back here today,” Rama explained the reason for the forced meeting with Veliaj. When he left, he made sure to publish a retouched photo on Facebook.
Now the signals that he had become an unwanted person for the prime minister were impossible not to read.
Criticism of the debate with Baton Haxhiu
Maji further increased Erjon Veliaj’s rollback with another arrow that Edi Rama sent him publicly. At a time when he needed the support of the head of government more than ever, because SPAK had just notified him of the wealth investigation, Veliaj received another criticism.
This is about the debate he had with the publisher Baton Haxhiu, who had been of the opinion that Veliaj should have resigned due to the scandals in the municipality. For this opinion, Haxhiu was harshly attacked by Veliaj at the SPAK exit.
“The other guy knows what he asked for in the surveys he doesn’t conduct and charges unnecessary figures and when they don’t want him in Kosovo, they don’t want him at all in Albania,” he said.
Baton Haxhiu’s reaction was also immediate, labeling Veliaj as the top of the pyramid “of a terrifying system of systematic theft, exchange of services for narrow interests and granting economic favors.”
Where did Rama stand in this debate? Unexpectedly, he came out on the opposite side of Veliaj. A few days later, during an interview in Opinion, the prime minister revealed that he had “pulled out the ear” of the mayor.
“Yes, I told him. A very big mistake. Because I personally have followed the reactions to the media many times. But, I have never attacked a named person, a person, because these attacks are not worthy attacks for anyone who has a high function and who has a relationship related to his institutional role,” said Rama.
Veliaj’s spring of anxiety
When it comes to attacks on journalists, Rama is one of the reigning champions. So when he got involved in the conflict between Veliaj and Haxhiu, the prime minister seemed to be looking for a reason to reinforce the idea that Veliaj was already a burned card.
Balluku’s strengthening in the party and in the government
In mid-May, Belinda Balluku went to testify at SPAK. She and Veliaj have created a huge rift in the majority over the power grabs that Edi Rama has thrown at them. Every word Balluku said at SPAK was a knife to “Lali” who was now unable to stop the slide.
“Kjo është një dosje që ka bërë pis të madh e të vogël dhe ka ardhur koha të zbardhet, për të ndarë njëherë e mire të mirën nga e keqja, punën e ndershme nga abuzimi i pafalshëm”, tha Balluku.
The Deputy Prime Minister was relaying Edi Rama’s words and this was confirmed at the Socialist Congress in July, where Rama presented surprising changes in the government and where the new ministers were Belinda Balluku’s people.
The Minister of Interior, Finance and Defense came directly from the entourage of Belinda Balluku who was de facto taking the reins of the country’s government. Erjon Veliaj had already lost influence with Rama and with him the protection from the new justice system.
In fact, during the congress, Veliaj’s name was mentioned only for a bit of black humor by Edi Rama, as the man who knew Pandeli Majko and who could easily find a place for him in the cemetery.
Stripping of political power in Tirana
With the parliamentary elections approaching, Edi Rama did not have much time left to wait for SPAK to finish off Erjon Veliaj. The months passed quickly. Prosecutors were continuing their investigations, while Rama was forced to take measures to replace Veliaj from the party structures as a damaged player, whose fate is unknown and who weighs heavily on the team.
In September, during the assembly meeting, Edi Rama announced that the campaign in Tirana would be led by Elisa Spiropali, Ogerta Manastirlu and Erjon Veliaj. The camera captured the moment when Veliaj heard from Edi Rama the removal of the shoulder straps of the leader of Tirana, which no longer belonged only to him.
The mayor’s haunted gaze and pale face at that moment (photo above) revealed much more than the comments that would follow.
The truth is that in the following weeks, Veliaj completely avoided the Tirana campaign. Two months later, aware that he was throwing it into the mouth of SPAK without any political protection, Rama brought Blendi Gonxhe to Tirana, completely suppressing his function in the structures of the Socialist Party.
The stripping of the mayor of Tirana from political power was one of the strongest blows he has received from the prime minister. It is also a prelude to what happened in the last months of this year, when SPAKists raided his house, took Ajola Xoxa’s phone, raided the offices of her companies, and searched the homes of Arbër’s mother and brother to arrive at accusations of corruption, money laundering, and concealment of assets.
Trip to the USA
On December 28, a few hours after he had started his trip to the United States of America, Erjon Veliaj gave an angry response to Sali Berisha, who had asked Edi Rama to dismiss the mayor of Tirana. In this message about relations with SPAK, which was the last from Veliaj for this year, he promised that he would behave like a man in the face of accusations, considering himself a “supporter of new justice”.
Rama’s reaction was not delayed either. Ironically, now that Veliaj is at his end, Rama only utters principled proverbs like “anyone who is subject to investigation does not make anyone guilty, and on the other hand, trials are not held in the media, but trials are held in legal and constitutional processes”.
“With a point and a reason” all the details that foreshadow Lali’s downfall
More or less the same words have been heard about other socialists in difficult moments, starting with Saimir Tahiri, Lefter Koka, Ilir Beqaj etc., who accepted to go to prison one by one, but refused to cross the party line./Lapsi.al
