Ilija Batljan

Who is Ilija Batljan?

Ilija Batljan, born in 1967 is a Montenegrin-Swedish Social Democratic politician and since 2010 county commissioner and leader of the opposition in Stockholm County's County council.

He moved to Sweden in 1993 during the breakup of his native Yugoslavia and in 1996 earned a B.A. in economics at Stockholm University, later disputing in 2007. Engaging himself in the Social Democratic Party under then-Prime Minister Göran Persson, he was elected municipal commissioner and Mayor of Nynäshamn in 2005, resigning in 2009 in order to take up his current post as county commissioner. He is generally regarded as a fiscal liberal and a strongman of the social liberal wing of the Social Democratic Party. During the 2010 general election he publicly criticized the party leadership for promising to reinstate wealth and property taxes levied by the Reinfeldt administration, calling the controversial property tax "perverse". His reformist agenda earned him harsh internal criticism but also made him an expected frontrunner for the Party's 2011 leadership election after the party's defeat, but he has publicly proclaimed his will not to run.