Prime Minister Edi Rama has reacted again to the request he submitted to the Constitutional Court to suspend Belinda Balluku, by decision of the Constitutional Court.
He admitted that the example given earlier about the airline with Canada may have seemed "excessive", but stressed that the purpose is to illustrate the absurdity of the situation created by Balluk's suspension.
Rama added that due to the suspension, a number of processes have been blocked, including the agreement with Canada on air flights, for which the government is trying to find a solution in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry. But according to him, this is only one element of the difficult situation.
"A good friend of mine was the reason for this communication with a message that he wrote to me and I understand your concern regarding the dangerous precedent that the suspension of the minister creates, that tomorrow it becomes a way for prosecutors and judges to remove whoever they want from the government. As for the airline with Canada, it seemed a bit excessive to me. Maybe it is too excessive, but the examples that I bring are to show how excessive the suspension of a minister is. Unlike any official who can be suspended, the suspended minister not only cannot sign anything himself, but also prevents anyone else from making a decision and signing on behalf of the department. Because the Constitution gives him and only that minister exclusive authority that cannot be delegated to anyone else. Therefore, suspension is absurd as a concept, because it is a blockage of the decision-making chain that the minister covers. Among the things that are blocked is the agreement with Canada on air flights that we are trying to resolve with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. YES, let's assume that we resolved it, what about the other 35 government decisions like "Will we do it? YES, with the construction permits for investments in renewable energy, in public buildings that have passed the KKT but cannot be disclosed without the suspended signature, how will we do it?" said Rama.
According to Rama, the blocked cases due to Balluku's suspension will increase even further. Therefore, according to him, "he has taken the matter to the Constitutional Court."
"I am not here to interfere in the work of the prosecutor or judge in question, nor how and why they are dealing with a file of a member of the government. I am talking about the brutal intervention in the composition of the government, about the concrete taking of the powers that the constitution gives me in this case," the prime minister said.
Rama also had an answer for those who criticize him for not removing the minister: Removing the minister in this case does not solve this fundamental problem, but would create a fundamental problem for the future, not for me, but for the future.