Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at extraordinary session of the Assembly:

Once again, the Assembly was forced to convene an extraordinary session due to a same old story with (President) Ilir Meta.

Once again, this is not a clash between us and Ilir Meta, but between Ilir Meta and justice.

Once again, in order for everyone to understand without going into detail, we at the Assembly of Albania face the man who has lost any sense of moral compass and has turned the institution of the President of the Republic into a turret from where he attacks in any directions although we all are 100% not 99%, but 100%, in the same line with the United States of America and the European Union.

Of course, it is easy understood, as it is always the case, why Ilir Meta doesn’t spare even our strategic partners and two great unwavering allies of Albania – the United States of America and the European Union – putting everyone in an uncomfortable position since he openly suggests that these honorable missions of different states, which are the promoters and supporters of the judicial reform since day one, are now accused of corruption. There is nothing in the world more shameful than this and I believe it is needless to further go on with efforts to explain the reasons leading us to such a situation and the righteousness of our decisions.

Therefore, I will refrain from dealing with Ilir Meta this time and instead I will speak about the upcoming justice system and still takes a strong will, patience and strong support from us. But, for everyone watching this new episode of this very same old story of the class between Ilir Meta and the justice system, I would like to state that before we decided and do what the Assembly did by electing the two new members of the Constitutional Court and taking for granted the election of another member of the Court due to the failure of the President of the Republic to carry out his duty and meet the deadline for naming a Court member, we have fully agreed with our strategic allies and have completely referred to the opinions rendered by their experts, who are integral part of the whole justice reform process, namely the EURALIUS and OPDAT experts.

To all of those who wish to learn the truth about what is happening, I would address a rhetorical question; Is it possible that the United States of America and the European Union, as well as their expertise, have been made available to any project other than the declared and legitimate project of radical transformation of Albanian justice and its eventual independence from the hands of politics?

I believe the answer is quite simple for any reasonable mind: This is not possible!

Today we find ourselves in a difficult position and I feel myself in a difficult position, but not because of this episode. The episode is merely another meaningful expression of the difficulties this reform entails since it was launched. I feel myself in a difficult position vis-à-vis the citizens and their legitimate expectations from justice, which still has to come and it has yet to become tangible.

And not only that, because what should have been justice is still injustice today, as a result of a significant number of judges and prosecutors belonging to the criminal organization “catch whatever you can.”

Our battle today is not being fought against Ilir Meta, but against this organization.

In the meantime, the process about which we convened today, that is adoption of this resolution, is many times easier and completely clear. Today we will be carrying out our duty towards this institution and towards the Albanian public opinion, but this indeed is undoubtedly a very easy task compared to the task of acting immediately against the “catch whatever you can” organization, highlighting the whole sludge that has turned into a swamp that more than ever prevents today the free flow of water to consolidate the justice system.

This is another motive for us to speed up and accelerate our fight against this criminal organization and not simply wait for the vetting process, but instead we embark on this fight and intensify it in tandem with the fight against organized crime.  Those who have been sentenced on organized crime charges, or serious crime charges linked with criminal activities, all those who have stood accused of organized crime charges but have escaped justice thanks to those prosecutors and judges, who turned justice system into a kind of market with the criminals being first to make a bid, and usually placing the highest bid; and all those being investigated under organized crime charges should immediately become our target.

It is no longer possible that the organized crime elements and members of the organization “catch whatever you can” enjoy they illicit wealth. The offensive against their wealth will be at the heard of an irreversible process we should embark on as soon as possible.

I talked about the scandalous Durres case from this podium and I vowed to forward to parliament as soon as possible a legal platform to be adopted and turn into a platform of combating the organized crime and the organization “catch whatever you can. It is no longer a matter of months, but days.

I will reveal this platform to the public on November 25.

This platform will also be the Assembly’s real challenge, which will also determine in this hall those who are ready to declare this war with those who are not. It will once and for all put an end to an old story, with the organized crime being turned from a common problem into a motive of political fight; from a common enemy into a political ally of those who have repeatedly used the proceeds of crime to throw it in our court.

Time is high for all this process and this entire chain of artificially triggered crisis by Ilir Meta and all of those belonging since day one to the notorious front against judiciary reform to take the right direction and the appropriate response from us.

This is the time when our response should be unequivocal and it should shake the foundations on which stands today the organized crime in Albania. Shaking the foundations of any crime proceeds and property and also shaking the foundations under the feet of anyone within Justice System, prosecutor or judge, has joined organized crime.

With regards to the issue we have convened for, what I know is that no Constitution of any democratic country can ever envisage that a country would be as unfortunate as to have a President just like Ilir Meta. To this end, this Parliament should take legal constitutional action in order to create all unblocking mechanisms towards any flagrant and brutal action against him who has turned the President’s office into a turret to blackmail Parliament, to blackmail the international partners and blackmail the Albanian people.

I believe that the ad-hoc commission set up to discharge Ilir Meta from office should seriously consider the package of recommendations to the Parliament, taking also into consideration the latest action by President. Members of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs and every lawmaker should contribute and vote in order to neutralize the President’s unconstitutional actions.

It is pretty easy. We have finalized a judiciary reform to prevent the political interests and deals from interfering in the process of appointments to the new justice bodies. We have set up a special independent institution, the Justice Appointment Council, which is the sole institution tasked with leading the process and forward to President and Parliament the list of candidates according to well-defined mechanisms of appointment process.

There are no potential interpretations in this process. There is no legal office either in the President’s office, Parliament or in the Prime Minister’s office that could make interpretations and claim that the Justice Appointment Council has made a wrong decision, or the government issue a statement that the court has made a wrong decision.

Of course, everyone has the right to make political interpretations and media interpretations, but no one has the right to turn such interpretations into an instrument to counterattack and also disobey independent justice institutions. It’s as easy as that. Any other discussions are “non-sense to goad it,” as Father Gjergj Fishta used to say.

It is not worth asking who we are? Who this President and everyone else making comments on TV studios or websites are to make interpretations or decide different than what the justice institutions, namely the High Appointment Council in this case, have decided.

So it is not worth wasting more time in analyzing, providing arguments or commenting on Ilir Meta’s madness. It is us and the Albanian citizens to suffer this misfortune and coexist with it as long as the office of the President of the Republic will a kind of “an occupied land” by someone who has lost his moral compass.

We are forced to follow the right path we have defined together with our strategic allies and as long as the United States of America and the European Union have formally and publicly voiced support for every move and step we have made, whoever wishes to understand can clearly understand that we are neither alone in this process, nor we decide to react on our own. Our reactions are all coordinated, because we have been and continue to listen attentively those with whom we have finalized judiciary reform and those with whom we will implement the judiciary reform.

This is the reason we are in a process of intense discussions and coordination with them to draft the special law against organized crime and the organization “catch whatever you can,” because it would be an unprecedented fight like never before in Albania and it is a kind of fight we definitely need their full support.

Therefore, we need to vote in the resolution and keep on fulfilling our obligations without shifting our focus from our duties. We are not at a war with Ilir Meta. Ilir Meta is at war with the world, Europe, Albania, the government and his own self. Let him go on with this fight. We have a duty to avoid all the negative effects that such acts of war have on our processes, on electoral processes, on the processes of reforming the institutions of justice, and on any other process where this man has assumed to be the sole interpreter and the Constitution of the Republic of Albania. Just like the Taliban who call themselves the sole and powerful interpreters of the Holy Book.

Thank you!