Shqiprim Arifi (; born 14 June 1976) is a Serbian politician serving as the head of the Alternative for Changes and the mayor of the

Preševo Preševo ( sr-cyrl, Прешево; sq, Preshevë, ) is a town and municipality located in the Pčinja District of southern Serbia. It is the southernmost town in Central Serbia and largest in the geographical region of Preševo Valley. Preševo ...

municipality since 11 April 2022. Arifi is a representative of the country's Albanian community.

Biography

Arifi was born on 14 June 1976 to an

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

family in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...

, in what was then

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. His family hails from the village of

Trnava Trnava (, german: Tyrnau; hu, Nagyszombat, also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of a ''kraj'' (Trnava Region) and of an '' okres'' (Trna ...

, in the vicinity of

. In Germany he attended elementary school and graduated from economics high school in 1998. After graduating, he started working for HAAF as an international sector manager, and in 2002 he started a private business in the field of logistics, while soon opening branches of his company in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

and

Kumanovo Kumanovo ( mk, Куманово ; also known by other #Etymology, alternative names) is a city in North Macedonia and the seat of Kumanovo Municipality, the List of municipalities in the Republic of Macedonia by population, largest municipali ...

.Председник општинe Прешево
/ref> He moved from Germany to Preševo in 2013. After the

2016 Serbian local elections Local elections were held in most cities and municipalities of Serbia (excluding the disputed territory of Kosovo) on 24 April 2016, with repeat voting later taking place in some jurisdictions. The elections were held concurrently with the 2016 Ser ...

, he was elected president of the municipality of Preševo, while he was re-elected in February 2018. In 2016, Arifi became the president of one of the local governments in Serbia, although he did not speak Serbian. He advocates the annexation of the

Preševo Valley The Preševo Valley ( sr-cyrl, Прешевска долина, Preševska dolina, al, Lugina e Preshevës) is a geopolitical region in southern Serbia, along the border with Kosovo. The valley geographically includes municipalities of Bujanova ...

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

Personal life

Arifi is married and has three daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arifi, Shqiprim 1976 births Living people Politicians from Mannheim Businesspeople from Mannheim Albanians in Serbia Serbian businesspeople Serbian politicians Mayors of places in Serbia German businesspeople German politicians German people of Albanian descent German people of Serbian descent