Prime Minister Edi Rama has further intensified his rhetoric in the debate over judges’ salaries and the way their requested pay increase should be implemented.
In another reaction on the X platform, Rama rejected the claim that judges could directly obtain from the State Treasury the funds related to their salaries, describing such an approach as incompatible with the way the state functions.
“No, a judge can never speak like this!” Rama wrote, adding that “the world has never seen judges say, ‘We will take the money ourselves from the State Treasury because it is ours.’”
The Prime Minister also considers particularly problematic the argument that the funds were generated through the judges’ own work.
According to him, the same logic could also be applied by customs officers, tax officials, police officers and inspectors, who could then demand the funds they have collected through taxes and fines.
“What would then be left for teachers, doctors, military personnel and many, many others who perform thousands of duties for the state, for which they are paid from the Treasury?” Rama said.
Prime Minister Edi Rama’s reaction:
“No, a judge can never speak like this!
The world has never seen judges say that they will take the money themselves from the State Treasury because it is theirs, and this claim that ‘we collected it ourselves’ is an outrage in itself, given the shocking level of ignorance it demonstrates about how the state functions.
Let us imagine customs and tax officials, police officers and inspectors getting up and saying: ‘We want the money that we ourselves collected into the State Treasury through taxes and fines!’
What would then be left for teachers, doctors, military personnel and the many, many others who perform thousands of duties for the state, for which they are paid from the Treasury?
And if this requested pay increase, without a law, were to be accepted as a fait accompli, it would mean that, compared with a teacher, doctor or member of the military, an entry-level judge would earn 3.8 times more, or a salary 280% higher. As for those higher up, you cannot even imagine how much more they would earn.”
The Prime Minister also addressed the difference between judges’ salaries and those of other professions in the public sector. He argues that if the requested increase were accepted without a new legal decision, an entry-level judge would earn 3.8 times more than a teacher, doctor or member of the military, or a salary 280% higher.
This is Rama’s latest reaction as part of the recent dispute over magistrates’ salaries. In recent days, the Prime Minister has published several statements opposing the way the salary increase is being sought and arguing that State Treasury funds cannot be made available through a decision by the judiciary.
Rama has insisted that any change to judges’ salaries must be made through legal procedures and a decision by Parliament.
The debate has escalated following the Administrative Court’s decision on the implementation of the salary increase for magistrates, while the government and representatives of the judicial system hold differing positions on how the ruling should be implemented and on its financial implications.
The post Rama continues criticism over judges’ salaries: A judge can never speak like this appeared first on Euronews Albania.
