Goodbye Lal, this was the end.

2025-03-13 16:46:00, Opinione Andi Bushati

In less than 24 hours, Veliaj lost both the battle with justice and the one within the party. He remained in prison without support from the Socialist Party and we will not see his people again in the next assembly.

After what has happened in recent days, it can be said without fear that Erion Veliaj's political star has faded. Two events, which a fatal coincidence brought close to each other on the calendar, confirmed this.

The first took place in the appeals chamber of the Special Court.

At its doors, neither Rilinda militants nor municipal employees gathered to express support for their idol or employer. The big boss prevented them with a decree, declaring that what had happened a month earlier was wrong. The spring of Lali's great loneliness continued with the abandonment of support by socialist deputies. After Edi Rama made an example of Etjen Xhafaj's status, no one dared to express political solidarity with the prisoner of Durrës.

The appeal of the GJKKO leaves Erion Veliaj in prison
March 13, 11:09

In this atmosphere of abandonment, the hearing to evaluate the measure of arrest took place. on appeal, where SPAK claimed to have brought several wiretaps as new evidence. But is it possible that Veliaj was unwittingly let into the trap and no one informed him about them, from the prison directorate or the Ministry of Justice? If these institutions are controlled by the party-state, how is it possible that not a single person was found to warn the acting mayor of how much he was risking with the orders he was giving from his cell? Did they leave him in free fall?

No matter how hypothetical or real this suspicion is, one thing is clear, Judge Pëllumbi, who maintained the continuity of his first instance colleague, Bani, confirmed that the act of handcuffing was not a coincidence and that Veliaj's relationship with the cell will be longer than thought.

Paradoxically, within the same days that Erioni was being hit by justice, the lists with which the Socialist Party will compete in Tirana were also made public. One of the first conclusions that can be drawn after seeing the names listed there is that in the next parliament, unlike the one that is closing, there will be no supporters of the one who until recently was the political leader of this region.

SPAK's facts and evidence in the GJKKO Appeal for Veliaj
March 13, 08:18

If you look at the closed list, that is, those who are certain of re-election, you will not find any supporters of Lali there. While in the open part of it, there are 5-6 candidates left, more to be squeezed, for what they have won in the past, than as promises for the future. It is unlikely that any of them will manage to enter the assembly.

With the exception of Fatmir Xhafa, who belongs more to the party than to the temporary alliances it builds to survive there, none of the mayor's former supporters will be part of the SP group in the new assembly.

So, in the space of two or three days, Veliaj has emerged as a loser both in relation to justice and in relation to the party. His career has been irreversibly compromised, to the surprise of all those who were under the illusion for a long time that he was Rama's predestined successor.