Prime Minister Edi Rama said that the justice reform has created a justice system that, according to him, operates independently of political power. Rama said the reform was an achievement of himself and the Socialist Party (PS), describing it as a process through which political power handed the “sword of justice” over to a liberated and independent judicial system.
“The independence of the justice system did not fall from the sky. It was not brought about by time, nor by the United States or Europe. They helped, but without us they would have achieved nothing. Nor was the independence of the justice system brought about by the crows and ravens shouting ‘corruption’ and looking at SPAK as a weapon against me — people whom I have defeated, and continue to defeat, in every election whenever they think they have cornered me and dug my grave.
“Defeating them is not what keeps me awake at night, nor does their posturing. This is about what is happening with corruption and justice. The days when political power and impunity were one and the same are not coming back. That era is over because the Socialist Party and I took on an enormous challenge and undertook the deepest and most painful reform — the act of transferring the sword of justice from the hands of political power into the hands of a liberated and independent justice system.
“I did it not because I was naive, nor because I did not know that heads would roll, but because the burden of that great political sacrifice was mine — ours — to bear. Today, for the first time in the history of the Albanian state, the system itself is demonstrating a capacity for self-cleansing that it has never had before. This is a major achievement, and I will not negotiate its significance with anyone,” Rama said.
According to Rama, the fact that the justice system is taking action against ministers, directors and mayors demonstrates that it operates independently of political power.
“In no country drowning in corruption is there a frontal fight against corruption. In no such country does the prosecution investigate those in power; instead, it protects them. In no such country does the justice system go after ministers, directors or mayors; it simply waits for orders from those in power to target their opponents.
“We have all experienced a country drowning in corruption — where the leader of the opposition was imprisoned on orders from above; where protesters were killed with bullets paid for by taxpayers; where prosecutors’ summonses over state killings in the middle of the boulevard were treated like toilet paper in the prime minister’s office, while the prosecutor was denigrated as a ‘boulevard whore’; where the tax director remained in office while under house arrest; and where 26 innocent people killed in the explosion of a corrupt Ministry of Defence project were treated as victims of a natural disaster. Those four people killed on the boulevard have still not received justice.
“Today, corruption is facing a different system, one in which institutions are developing that investigate with complete freedom and independence. Until yesterday, corruption was the system; today, the system is fighting corruption. That is the historic change.
“The self-cleansing of the system is a long-awaited development in the organization of the state, following an agony as long as the history of the Albanian state itself. After this long agony, the state is developing immunity against its old diseases.
“And when this noisy, dirty and painful phase has passed; when the names, secrets, drooling, scribblings and screams of the media marketplace have faded; when the smoke of the digital mirrors has cleared and the dust from the construction site of the Justice Reform has settled, everyone will see that these developments are a vital part of the irreversible, fundamental transformation Albania is undergoing today.
“Today I have returned to Albania, but Albania is not going back. No one and nothing will stop it, will stop us, will stop me,” Rama said.
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