Prime Minister Edi Rama has responded to the leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, regarding the debate on the suspension from office by the GJKKO decision of Belinda Balluku, who was taken as a defendant by SPAK.
In today's statement to the media, Berisha said that the Prime Minister, with his comments on the GJKKO decision, is putting open pressure on the Constitutional Court. He also said that Rama has deceived Albanians by bringing up the example of the Venice Commission and for this he will sue him for "public fraud."
"Yesterday Edi Rama took on extraordinary pressure on the Constitutional Court, open pressure, condemned by law in every country to protect himself and Belinda, behind whose back he has eaten rotten pears and plums. Let's take a look at the... unscrupulous and unprecedented attack on the Constitutional Court and the European justice system of the Venice Commission, as can be understood when this fraudster refers to the Commission for things he has never said. Edi Rama says that the suspension of Balluk by referring to the Venice Commission is disproportionate, but it is fraud. The Venice Commission requires proportionality and is one of the basic principles of the Constitution of Albania. The DP will file a lawsuit for public fraud against Edi Rama. He will be sued tomorrow for public fraud before the citizens for what he says," he said.
A few hours after Berisha's statement, the prime minister's reaction came via a video on Facebook. Rama said that he had filed the appeal of Balluk's suspension from office with the Constitutional Court as prime minister. Referring to this, he said that he is not putting pressure on anyone, but is a party to the process, claiming that he has the legitimacy to speak on this issue.
"I have appealed, of course as prime minister and not as Edi Rama, and of course not for an individual, a minister who in this case is also deputy prime minister, but for the principle. For the principle of not undermining the balance between powers. For the principle of non-interference of an independent power in the composition of the independent executive power. For the principle of not taking the powers of the prime minister and the president from a prosecutor and a judge.
"If the suspension of a minister by a prosecutor and a judge today were to be legitimized as a legal right of justice, then extending the judiciary's arm beyond the dividing line with the executive and with Albanian political life itself would create a dangerous and threatening precedent," Rama said.
The Prime Minister also insisted that the institutional battle for the case in question is to prevent what the Venice Commission considers an impermissible violation of the dividing line between powers.
"It is an institutional judicial battle to prevent what the Venice Commission considers an impermissible violation of the dividing line between powers. So, I am a party and I speak as a party, I do not pressure anyone and I do not speak about a judicial process that is taking place somewhere and has no connection to my role," said Rama.
