Prime Minister Edi Rama assured Monday of enforcement of justice reform every step of the way, be it with opposition or without it.
At a news conference after election of Arta Marku as temporary prosecutor general by parliament, PM Rama demanded an apology from international partners for today’s show of opposition, adding: Unfortunately the show will have ramifications for entire Albania, which like never before has come so close to the opening of EU accession negotiations and deserves neither the mudslinging nor the smoke of this opposition, which is standing in the way of justice reform for two years now.
PM said he did everything in his capacity to engage in a dialogue with opposition on election of temporary prosecutor general. “The repeated appeals from EU and the US to find a consensual solution were not enough to bring the opposition to the bargaining table,” Rama said.
Election of temporary prosecutor general with our votes was legitimate and constitutional, confirmed by the justice missions of the US and EU, which have assisted this hard process of justice overhaul from the outset.
However, this was not the remedy we asked for, me in particular. We stood for an election based on consensus and dialogue with opposition, which was continuously invited to join the table. To us, it was not simply a matter of adhering to the Constitution, law and fulfilling this obligation of justice reform, our main concern was to fulfill this obligation together, Rama said.
Instead, the opposition resorted to the desperate way of mudslinging and smoke without even sparing the representatives of EU and US, going as far as accusing the US ambassador of conflict of interest in this issue, and of corruption by former attorney general Adriatik Llalla.
Adriatik Llalla departs without any conflict of interest with the ruling majority
Rama said that Adriatik Llalla is the first prosecutor general in these 27 years to depart after the expiry of his term of office, and without coming into conflict with the ruling majority.
“Maks Haxhia, Arben Rakipi, Theodhori Sollaku, Ina Rama were appointed prosecutors general with the consent of Sali Berisha and all of them were massacred by Sali Berisha and his party because they were merely doing their job,” according to Rama.
Adriatik Llalla was neither impeded nor attacked by my government. Just because we have adopted a different approach and never used the power to exercise direct or underground pressure on prosecution to the defense of anyone from our ranks or when reasons behind the actions of this body were put in question.
The Albanian opposition defying the justice reform, unprecedented case
Rama said that Albania is setting an unprecedented case in the history of accession process with opposition, not the ruling opposition, defying the justice reform.
Back in July last year their aim was to overthrow the govt. in place for passing the first package of justice reform pertaining to constitutional bodies , which unfolded like a battle between the reformists and those scared by justice overhaul. These were the ones who cut a sorry figure. Some of them were standing by the side of opposition, others were behind us when they cared about power rather than justice at that time,” Rama said, adding: Right now they have chosen to throw smoke gas, bottles, shoes, just because they have run out of control, love and power.
“We will work hard to make sure this reform will not drag on,” Rama said.
Asked whether this show was detrimental to the opening of negotiations, Rama said I do not think it will have an adverse effect on opening of negotiations, albeit any show of this kind is against Albania.
