I am sorry to tell you that the refusal that the Democratic Party made today to the latest proposal for a compromise on the draft of Justice Reform is not something I didn’t expected. As you know, this time the proposal was made by Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, on behalf of the United States and the European Union.
The reason why this refusal did not come unexpectedly is that, throughout the one-and-a-half period of the drafting process of the Judicial Reform, the Democratic Party has given by all means the signal that it doesn’t want Justice Reform.
It boycotted the process, initially, for a long time. It was in and out the process, brining non-sense papers only to confuse the process. It threw mud against high-level experts everywhere and every time it could, and by all the means it could. It has never stopped abusing with the Venice Commission’s opinion, initially getting stuck during the winter at paragraph 55, and then at paragraph 88, like the drowning at a blade of grass.
It made fun of Albania’s strategic partners, saying them that it’s only concern is to prevent Edi Rama from seizing justice, and that the only solution to this is reserved seats. Then it made a proposal concerning the concern, and shifted from the reserved seats to the armoured seats, and instead of requiring a substantial inclusion of the opposition – as the Venice Committee advised – it required full equality of participation in the ad hoc committee for the selection of the members of the Qualification Commission, which does the vetting of judges and prosecutors, 6 from the majority and 6 from the opposition.
After we accepted this proposal, it took 48 hours of the meeting with Assistant Secretary Nuland, not to accept it, but to overthrow it. And its counterproposal actually reveals a truth hidden for a year and a half.
The Democratic Party is not concerned about the reserved seats, but it has reservations about the credibility, professionalism and integrity of the strategic partners of Albania. It doesn’t want Albania’s strategic partners or other internationals around because it fears their impartiality, professionalism and loyalty to the legitimacy in the process of scanning assets and decision-making skills of the judges and prosecutors of the Republic of Albania.
Have you ever heard the Democratic Party says that it’s concern is precisely the loss of control it has on the corrupt people who take hostage of the justice system, judges and prosecutors with whom it killed once again the victims in Gerdec and in the boulevard, and has turned justice in a huge medieval bazar, where its corrupt people have never had a single trouble so far. Of course not! You haven’t heard such a thing, because they cannot tell you this.
Have you ever heard them say that they do not want internationals put their nose in the big bazaar that the power of the Democratic Party created within the justice system in order to make sure that it will remain unaffected forever and ever by justice for the wrong it has done to Albania and which lead the country to the moral and economic bankruptcy? Of course not, because they can never tell you this.
Perhaps, the pride of the warrior for a pretended justice made them believe the tale that they kept telling every day over a year and a half, where the whole problem was “my clutches” in the justice system. And by believing this tale, they didn’t think that the day would come when they would be unmasked in front of the people and our strategic partners who are disappointed due to this refusal which they did not expected, because the DP did never think that we would accept its proposal, drafted in fact not to compromise with us, but to make as say “no”.
What are they going to say now? Maybe they will tell you that now the concern is even bigger, that the US and Europe will seize the independent Albanian justice. Or maybe, they will tell you that we love America and Europe a lot, but we love even more the sovereign Albania that doesn’t accept strangers to interfere in domestic affairs. Let’s see what they’re going to say.
But I hope and believe that you have not forgotten how many times the Democratic Party has required in parliament to have international investigations, international prosecutors, and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation, come here, take control of the situation, and reveal corruption or scandals stories that it itself would invent.
You have not forgotten, I think, how many times it has demanded the Assembly of Albania to approve – as if America had no sovereignty – the involvement of US investigators in investigations on specific issues of the Albanian justice, to such an extent that our partners felt compelled to say: “We are not directly involved in the investigation of another country, but we are ready to support the reform of the Albanian justice.”
Such support from the US, the EU, such attention to Albania from our strategic partners at a time when the world has another 1001 problems, speaks louder than any word and comment.
It is unacceptable to respond to such support with “I keep the distance”. It is clear that those kinds of requests and calls for international investigations were a mockery. A big mockery to the people because we know very well that foreigners do not do such investigations in other countries. But I am saying this to remind you that while they were mocking, they weren’t concerned about sovereignty, about the independence of justice from foreigners, about the United States and Europe putting their nose in our domestic affairs. Now that our partners are ready to help us seriously, not by making investigations, but by supporting with a structured mechanism the cancer surgery in the justice system and helping us to finally expel from the system after more than 20 years the corrupt judges and prosecutors, the DP claims sovereignty and wants to show the US and Europe the limits.
A colleague from an EU country, a connoisseur of the integration process, of the unification of the former communist countries said: “Albania is the first case when, not the government, but the opposition is preventing the joint project of a country that is the integration process with EU on Justice Reform.”
Justice reforms in all countries that joined the EU were made in cooperation with the EU and the US, because it is not the EU who has asked to be integrated into Albania, but it is Albania who seeks EU integration. No EU country claims sovereignty over the way it understands and applies the norms and standards of the European family. No one!
The British stepped on their feet in the name of sovereignty. If this refusal is an invitation, in the name of sovereignty, to step on our feet, then no Albanian, either socialist or democratic, or of non-party, in Albania and abroad, cannot accept this.
A justice that punishes the corrupt paves the way of our people to EU membership. Whereas the fear of the corrupt by justice punishes our people badly by leaving them outside the EU and in the hands of the butchers of our current justice system.
Today’s rejection is a proof, and facts are even more obvious. In this one and a half year of efforts to do the reform, the DP is ready to sacrifice the people and the European future of Albania to protect its accused people from a justice reformed and ready to face the cancer of corruption at the highest levels.
However, there is still time, there are still opportunities, hope dies last. There is still hope that the DP has still alive some reasoning.
I urge Lulzim Basha publicly, not to be guided by fear, but to lead the Democratic Party towards the greater national interest which is linked to this historic reform that is simultaneously state-building and integrative.
I invite Lulzim Basha to sit again together and talk like two Albanians who today are leading their parties, but tomorrow will be the same as the 4.4 million Albanians or if you want, 10 million average Albanians who, whether they are or not Albanian citizens, want and deserve a European Albania, the rule of law guaranteed by a just justice, and who also want and deserve for their children a country integrated in the EU, in the united family of European nations.
I urge all democrats from the DP headquarters to every DP cell, to do something and not let the future of Albania be refused by the fear of justice, and make Albania become again a country where fear of the corrupt will get the power in this crossroads, and rule over this crossroads, by opening once again the gap of the past, between us and the European family.
