Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama in extraordinary parliamentary session:

 

Here we are finally at the very important moment when we crown an idea that lays at the basis of the whole process of judicial reform, by adopting a law that paves the way to the iron broomstick in the palace of justice to cleanse the palace of justice form all those who have taken justice hostage in this country. They have taken hostage freedoms and rights at every level, they have turned justice into a commodity that can be bought and sold, and have become an hindrance not only for every citizen on their path to receive justice on time and in a normal manner, but also for an entire people to be governed by those who don’t have any issue with justice.

And actually, those who oppose reform in justice are those who have issues with justice. Those who do their best to prevent the irreversible process of this reform are those who rightly feel the consequences of this reform. I am surprised, or actually I am not surprised at all why they do not celebrate with us another victory. I am talking about those who were forced to join consensus in this room, because popular pressure and the pressure of our international partners and friends was titanic – and actually the wall of the 94 votes was brought down right in front of the SHQUP doors.

We are willing to celebrate their victory, just like on that night when very sincerely I wished the Democratic Party as many victories as the one of that night, and I don’t understand why they are departing from the train of victory.

But I am convinced that any Albanian who sees a little sense can understands this. Any citizen who has lived this transition day after day, year after year, for more than 2 decades and has experienced the horrors that correlate with the inexorable decay of the justice system all these years. Albanians know very well who has prevented the justice system from being reformed in all these years; who has obstructed justice in Albania to normalize and who has prevented the right in this country to institutionalize in the people’s daily life. Our citizens know this very well. There is not much to argue, to explain or to talk here, and neither is there a lot to flaunt love for justice, for the Constitution, for freedom and democracy. There is only one thing to do here: vote such an important law.

Let us vote this law so important, with the conviction that once again we put every effort to have a consensus, but by learning steps by step that there can be no consensus the Albanian way which opposes the consensus with our international partners and friends on the path to EU integration. Integration in the EU is not a menu from where you can take what you want and reject what you are allergic to. It is a menu which you take whole, or there is absolutely no value if you take what you like and leave what you don’t.

All of us here must get used quickly to the fact that in this process we are not sovereign to choose what we like of the rules and regulations of the united European family, but we are bound to the will of the sovereign people to be subject to all the rules and regulations that will enable us to build the state in this country and become part of the European family. This doesn’t apply only to a thorough and epochal reform such as justice reform, but also to other reforms that apparently are less important, and to measures that seem exaggerated, unnecessary, tiresome and boring, and we must adapt to the rules and regulations of the common European house, because this is where we are heading, and this is the will of the Albanian people, and not the choice of this or that party.

Therefore, I say let’s vote this law as a majority and keep in total consistency defending the foundations of our governing program, defending resolutely and with concrete facts the commitments we took in front of the Albanians.

We have been the first government coalition since 1992 to have written it in the program. Open the program and read about justice reform. A lot of mockery and irony has been made, and a lot of nonsense has been said about how we could write it down in the program when the reform required 94 votes. Whereas today we are at a neuralgic point of the program finalized, and have also passed the test of the constitutional majority with 140 votes.

Now, the reason why you cannot keep pretending that you want justice reform, the reason why you cannot keep pretending that you make a contribution to improve the successive drafts of this reform, for others will follow, is as easy to understand as it is pitiful.

You are not allowed by what you have in the depth of your house’s entrails, which prevents your form imagining an Albania where it will be impossible for every judge and every prosecutor to continue practicing their profession unless they meet the conditions set forth in this law, and where it will be impossible for every politician to avoid confrontation with justice, no matter how important, legendary or historic he or she is, by using the language of threats, the jargon of division, and by calling directly or indirectly upon a part of Albania to hate the rest of Albania.

This old politics, depraved and degrading for Albania in all these years has its borders increasingly narrow, and these narrow borders consist in the justice reform, and one of its crucial parts is the law we approve today. And Albanians today, beyond everything we discuss here, must have very clear that here in this room there is a majority who is very willing to respond to the call and be subject to their will to hit right in the heart the corrupt justice system, and to cast out of the system all the incriminated people disguised as prosecutors and judges, as well as a minority that just like a shipwrecked desperately holds on a blade of grass, by bringing forth here every sort of unreasonable argument so that we can continue being under the heel of this organized criminal structure that holds hostage the justice system while wearing the masks of prosecutors and judges.

And surprisingly, I do not hear the word Venice anymore. Maybe because you have spent too much time in the water, for traditionally you use to stay in the water for a long time during summer, although there have been no reports on new records for squelching in the water given that you cannot swim, but I am going to quote the Venice Commission on the law we are about to approve today.

The Venice Commission says that these measures, the measures to wipe out the system with an iron broomstick all those who have prevented Albania form being freed from injustice, are not only justified but they are necessary for Albania to be defended from corruption. So, it is just like saying that Albania must be defended from this enemy that is in its lap, which if it is not dealt with these drastic measures, it can completely destroy the judicial system. Here Venice has its own language which is actually a little softer than the language of truth.

Today’s court system in Albania is broken. The whole scheme – the Venice Commission continues – is clearer and gives better guarantee for individuals who may be affected by the assessment. Let them be affected and burned, for Albanians will not be missing any of them, Albanians will not feel sorry for any of those who have prevented justice in Albania in all these years, and for any of those who keep having speeches here being convinced that the day in which they respond to justice will never come.

That day will come. As popular wisdom teaches us, justice might be slow, but eventually it shows up.

* * *

Statement by Prime Minister Edi Rama following the conclusion of the parliamentary session and of the voting of the law on Vetting:

 

– What does this mean, Mr Rama? Did you vote it without consensus?

 

– It means that today the caste of the corrupt and incriminated in the justice system has received a clear message. Just as Albanians have received another confirmation of the firm will of this majority to finally deliver this country the justice that has been missing and denied for so many years, to end a shameful history of justice turned into a commodity that can be bought or sold, which has badly tarnished Albania, and has badly demoralized the Albanian people for years. Today we adopted the basic law of an entire edifice of laws to be built step by step and pave the way to the process of implementation of the judicial reform. Because we cannot succeed in this historic process that will take years, if all those who will be cast away from the edifice that we constitutionally put down with the vote of constitutional changes, are transferred in the new palace of justice. This would mean failure. Meanwhile, those who will be transferred from the old edifice to the new palace of justice, i.e. to the new constitutional building, will be those who pass the scanning process for all the criteria set forth in this law, ranging from their professional capacity to their professional integrity, and definitely to their property.

– Mr Rama, will the fact that the opposition is not going to vote this law weigh on your political conscience?

– I do not know if there is anybody left in this country – for abroad there is nobody – but if there is someone in this country who still believes in the expression of the will of this opposition to defend the Constitution, to defend the freedoms and human rights, and if there is still somebody who still believes that this is an opposition that truly wants to reform justice, and that this is an opposition that has other things  in addition to its old politics of despair, of  impediment, of delay and certainly in the case of justice, the politics dictated by a fear explainable by justice itself.

Not only there is no reason to have a burden on my conscience, as you called it, and I understand you, but on the contrary, there is a reason to say that this majority that had the votes to pass constitutional changes even without the opposition, waited for the opposition until the end, it accepted to negotiate and modify together with the opposition what could be modified, without crossing the red lines drawn by the process, and we have been both in the product of constitutional changes and in the process of its further continuation with the vetting, ready to do anything to bring the parties together.

The opposition has done the only thing it is always good at, pretending that it wants to, while in fact it has always shown the contrary. This is a reform that does not stop. It is not such because I want so, it is not such because this large government majority that is today in the hall of Parliament want so, but it is such because the people of Albania want it to be such.

Any attempt to stop, any attempt to deform its scope and essence is destined to fail, just as all attempts to prevent in the name of consensus failed, and as it happened with the creation of a consensus imposed by factors that were totally outside the opposition forces, of the Albanian people, of international partners, the 94 factual votes and from the firm will of the majority to have the opposition a part in this process.

We have not ever thought of this process as a process that should be done without the opposition, but we have thought of it as a process that must be done preferably with the opposition, but if the opposition does not agree, it will be definitely done without the opposition.

– Do you believe, Mr Prime Minister, that the law passed today passes the test of the Constitutional Court?

– I am not to be questioned about this. I’d rather not answer, because I can say what I think in the case of the Constitutional Court.

Thank you for today!

It’s a very important moment because today we passed a ground-breaking law which we have sought insistently since the first day that we launched this reform. A law that will guarantee the reform to be deep, of quality and sustainable over time. A law that will show the right direction to those who unfairly stay inside the palace of justice, and have taken justice to an unknown direction for so many years.