“I am sorry that we do not have other mayors to argue with. I am the mayor of Gostivar, for the gender representation in the municipality of Gostivar, more than half of the employees in the municipality are women. We are a rare municipality where women are dominant.
The main sectors in the municipality of Gostivar are run by women. We have 16 schools, 11 of which are run by female principals. Women manage schools better, they pay more attention than men. Feedback from parents and students is that women manage schools better,” said Dr. Arben Taravari, Mayor of the Municipality of Gostivar in an interview with CIVIL.
“The idea of a woman running the municipality of Gostivar is a beautiful idea and I welcome it. If our party and municipality have such a desire, I will support them and help them achieve that.
It can always be more, and we as a political party are already considering every second to be a woman candidate for councilor.
The citizens of Gostivar know that our team is on the field every week. We are not under pressure that elections are coming, so as to tighten up now.
We do not feel that now there are elections and now we need to be active, as other parties and the government do.
The multiethnicity of the municipality of Gostivar can serve as an example for other municipalities. As for the European values of the city, we are somewhat far from Europe, the Rusino landfill. Rusino is 1 km from the municipality and that affects the clean air of the city. Over the years, we have worked intensively to inform people and make them aware that they need to protect the environment, ride more on bicycles, but we have provided subsidies for bicycles with our own funds and we have created bicycle paths.
In the 21st century, unfortunately, we are still talking about sewerage and water supply. We have installed almost 40 km of sewerage network, and about 43 km of water supply network. These are projects of the municipality, the non-governmental sector and assistance from the Swiss Embassy.
I would like to publicly thank the Swiss Embassy for all the help these years for the municipality of Gostivar.
The first school with a green roof was built in Gostivar. Those who make green roofs have lower taxes to the municipality, so we motivate them. It may be a pioneering step, but it affects people’s awareness of preserving the environment.
Decentralization in 2004 and ended in 2006, and after that I do not know that anything extra was decentralized. In 2018, ZELS had a meeting with the Prime Minister and it was said what they will do in the next term. After 3 years from that event, here I can conclude, except for nice words of the Prime Minister, nothing else was done. I am the opposition mayor, the only urban opposition municipality.
