Rama: I was the one who handed the sword to justice; this is the epochal change — the system is now fighting corruption itself

Prime Minister Edi Rama has described justice reform as one of Albania’s historic changes on the road to European integration.

From the press room at Tirana International Airport “Nënë Tereza”, Rama said the independence of justice did not come by chance but is, according to him, the result of a process supported by him and the Socialist Party.

“I was the one who handed the sword to justice for the European future of our country. The independence of justice did not fall from the sky, time did not bring it — its authorship, I say with conviction, is mine and the SP’s. Independence was not brought by angry losers shouting ‘corruption has drowned us’,” Rama said.

Rama also dwelt on how, in his view, the relationship between justice institutions and corruption has changed. He said bodies have been created that investigate independently and that this constitutes a significant change for the country.

The prime minister described this process as a “self-cleansing of the system”, arguing that state institutions are gaining, in his words, immunity against the old structures of corruption.

“This addressing of what is happening with corruption and justice is a matter, one of the country’s historic results in EU membership. Bodies have been formed that investigate in full independence. Until yesterday corruption was the system, whereas today the system itself is fighting corruption and this is the epochal change. The self-cleansing of the system is long-awaited after a long agony of the state. The state is gaining immunity from the old organisms and these developments are a vital part of the radical and irreversible change Albania is undergoing today. Nothing will stop us and nothing will stop me,” Rama said.