Rama responds to the Judges' Association: You are mistaken if you expect me to shut up

2025-12-09 10:45:00, Aktualitet CNA

Rama responds to the Judges' Association: You are mistaken if you expect me

Prime Minister Edi Rama has responded to the statement of the Judges' Association.

According to Rama, the association either doesn't know the meaning of the word pressure, or it knows that when they complain about it, it doesn't get a thorn in their side, since it has been fighting for them for 10 years.

The Prime Minister says that the association is wrong if it expects him to keep quiet and not share his opinion even when it is a party to a constitutional trial.

Rama also stated that the Judges' Association has repeatedly requested the Constitutional Court to increase judges' salaries by court decision, usurping the powers of the government and parliament.

"The Judges' Association has made a statement to complain about my "pressure" on the Constitutional Court. There are two options here:

Either they don't know the meaning of the word pressure, because I haven't seen them complain about others, who have been singing the house book to the people of justice for years, or they know that when they complain about me, they don't get a thorn in their side, because I am the one who hasn't been fighting with them for 10 years, I am fighting for them, even silently chewing over, as a matter of the independence universally declared with the Justice Reform, quite a few painful "mistakes" of the judiciary, to the detriment of the freedoms and rights of the people of this country and the interests of this state.

However, the Judges' Association is very wrong if it expects me to keep my mouth shut and not share my opinion with the public, not even when I am a party to a constitutional trial, because the function I cover, with the votes of nearly 1 million Albanians, has been attacked in its independence by a prosecutor and a judge and risks being crippled for today and for the future in its backbone.

Not only that, but the Judges' Association should know that it would be just as wrong if it expected my silence on its scandalous and repeated request to the Constitutional Court to (re)increase judges' salaries by court decision, usurping the powers of the government and parliament.

My silence the first time, before that suddenly shameful decision was made, will not be repeated this time, when with the (re)request in question, the judges' association is attempting to obtain from the state budget, bypassing the government and parliament, a new increase of a full 1600 Euros - yes, 1600 Euros plus the current salary - in the salaries of magistrates and their advisors.

In the meantime, I and the government and the parliamentary majority that I have the honor of leading welcome with open arms any institutional communication with the association in question, to address the needs and challenges of the new justice system, where the sacred principle of judicial independence must be protected at all costs not only from external interference by anyone, including myself, but also from the internal worm of the irresponsibility of judges, which daily erodes the people's trust in justice", declares Rama./ CNA