In a long, two-part interview with Valmora Goga of Shuplaka, former Minister of Justice Ylli Manjani spoke about several hot issues including the judicial reform, the boycott of the elections, the new Minister of Interior Affairs, and the cannabization of the country.
Speaking about Prime Minister Edi Rama’s political philosophy, Manjani stated that “the entire political philosophy of Prime Minister Rama is based on propaganda and the elimination of the opponent.”
About the opposition tent he said that “it is a pressure element against Prime Minister Rama. The LSI is another element of pressure. The fact that the coalition didn’t end in time as he [Rama] expected of course adds to the pressure.”
Manjani also spoke about the spreading of cannabis across the country, qualifying as the only economic alternative of this government:
The only democratic alternative of this government is to listen to its propaganda and to vote under the conditions of cannabis. The elections today are at risk because of the cannabis.
About the justice reform the former minister claimed that it will fail:
The only role of the reform has been to avoid the president and to increase the political influence on nominations in the justice system. […] The only new thing that this reform has brought is to remove the President of the Republic from the judiciary. How to split the cake of nominations and dismissals in a political manner, how to create as many institutions as possible where no one doesn’t understand anything to create a chaotic system with the aim of intervening selectively.
Manjani further address the following issues:
The nomination of Fatmir Xhafaj
The Prime Minister wanted to open this theme in order to avoid attention, to direct the public opinion on Fatmir Xhafaj. The public opinion should have been directed at Edi Rama, who governs worse and worse, who leads a government that has cannibized the country.
The use of propaganda
Whenever they need to avoid attention to fundamental issues, they create figures, stories, and old issues.
What does the government say? “Vetting, judges, serial killers.” So all the “blame” is put propagandistically on the courts, as if the government were any better.
The process of the judicial reform was closed, it was only opened for propaganda. The US Ambassador was invited to say “no watches,” “no elbows,” “no turning back,” which was propaganda, nothing else!
All of this is part of a propaganda, construed by the Prime Minister to blame the courts and to defend the government.
Today the public opinion has been charged in such a way that this vetting for example would solve Albania. That’s also part of the propaganda.
The dismissal of Saimir Tahiri
The cause of his dismissal is all of his behavior like the head of the police for some events that were not his responsibility. Because he took all of that on him, he fell and that had political consequences. He paid a price that wasn’t his, we have to say. It was Edi Rama’s, from A to Z.
What was that “Thank you Saimir!”?! The State Police thanking Saimir? Who is supposed to guarantee our elections? And they say thank you Saimir?!
The cannabization of the country
It has massively spread in all the rural zones of Albania, there is no longer one Lazarat. In the rural zones today, in the north and the south, including even central Albania, they are refusing to work the legal land in order to go to the forests to irrigate cannabis. It’s an attractive offer.
The opposition’s boycott of the elections
That the opposition wouldn’t enter the elections is not a small thing. Without opposition there are no elections!
No matter how weak the opposition is, you cannot treat it in an arrogant manner, but [Rama’s] arrogance comes from a very dangerous philosophy that he keeps in himself, which is the philosophy of the elimination of the opponent.
In the case that there is an agreement to enter the elections there’s no reason to postpone the date, but even possibly to get closer to it, because the country doesn’t have a government. The prime minister has abrogated the government, he is no longer a prime minister.
The judicial reform
Parliament has been put in the center of the judiciary institutions. What is Parliament? It is the next majority. So the [judicial] process hasn’t been saved from political influence, but is on the contrary made dependent on politics. This is a problem that will remain.
They have changed only the formula of the institutions, which will have stronger role, which the majority and which the opposition. They cut out the president because he’s an “enemy” and the have basically closed the Ministry of Justice.
Criminal prosecution should have been one of the main pillars of the judicial reform because there is no investigation in Albania. Cases are crippled by the evidence, go to the Prosecution only half-finished, and then to court. So it’s not the courts’ mistake.
The procedural codes that are currently being finished in the Committee of Legal Affairs are all scandalous, they don’t bring anything new. Absolutely nothing new. I have criticized this because they withdrew from the definition of the role of the Prosecution, which is the core. […] It wasn’t accepted, and rejected.
Strangely enough all the experts that were invited [in the drafting process of the judicial reform] were part of the Soros Foundation. There was nothing but the Soros Foundation!
