‘Erion Veliaj’s Ordeal Is Unique in Democratic Europe’s History’: Rama Reacts After High Court Ruling — ‘Tirana Has Been Decapitated for Two Years’

Prime Minister Edi Rama has reacted after the decision of the High Court, which upheld the security measure against Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj.

In a post on the social network X, Rama said he respects court decisions, but that Erion Veliaj’s ordeal is unique in democratic Europe’s history, highlighting the problems the absence of the mayor at the helm of Tirana is causing for the capital and its residents.

“Once again Tirana without a head, and once again the mayor elected and re-baptized by the Constitutional Court itself as the only one in office and immovable from office, cannot move from the cell where he is held without trial!” Rama writes.

Rama argues Tirana is facing high costs because of the created situation, describing the capital as a city that for nearly two years has been living “with its head cut off.”

“No one seems to care about the highest daily cost of the world’s first capital that for almost two years has been living with its head cut off, and about the toll that almost 1 million residents must pay daily to this unprecedented and unheard-of legal, social and economic experiment,” Rama writes.

THE PRIME MINISTER’S POST: Once again Tirana without a head, and once again the mayor elected and re-baptized by the Constitutional Court itself as the only one in office and immovable from office, cannot move from the cell where he is held without trial!

Yes, the rule requires court decisions to be respected and I always submit to this rule — I don’t even comment on decisions before they become final.

But beyond the fact that Erion Veliaj’s ordeal is unique in democratic Europe’s history, and also the fact that nowhere is there any sign of proof of the extreme dangerousness that could justify the endless locking in a cell of a person elected by the people, there is another bitter truth:

No one seems to care about the highest daily cost of the world’s first capital that for almost two years has been living with its head cut off, and about the toll that almost 1 million residents must pay daily to this unprecedented and unheard-of legal, social and economic experiment.