– What a hypocritical statement “let’s justice run its course”
– Justice cannot give justice!
– The state has fallen, justice has fallen!
– The government has to go!
Whose words are this? Lulzim Basha’s?
No, Edi Rama’s.
These are Edi Rama’s words from January 2011, immediately after the hidden camera footage of then Minister Dritan Prifti became public, showing then Deputy Prime Minister Ilir Meta speaking about corruption affairs and favoring certain companies in tender procedures.
On January 14, 2011, Edi Rama didn’t have any doubt that everything shown on the video, filmed in secret and transmitted piece by piece by a private TV station, was true and clear for every Albanian. Back then, he thought that the expression “let justice run its course” was a hypocritical expression that couldn’t hide or justify anything:
Again today and against without shame, Sali [Berisha] continues to deny what every Albanian saw and heard with sound and image. Today this mockery became even more charged, with the attempt, again mafia-like, to put the prosecution under pressure by forgetting if even formally the hypocritical expression “let justice run its course.”
Meanwhile, his trust in the justice system was zero:
Justice cannot give justice in a country that is ruled unjustly by a marauders and smugglers that only have one interest, money, and only one manner to fulfill their interests, power.
But six years later, now in power, Edi Rama has chosen precisely to “let justice run its course,” expressing his faith in the justice system:
Different from my predecessor [Sali Berisha] it cannot be me who determines guilt or innocence. That is the duty of the justice system and it is justice that should reveal until the end the truth. […]
Today, Edi Rama distances himself from Saimir Tahiri and is speaking about him like an unimportant dependent who is completely disconnected from him, even though he has considered and treated Tahiri as his closest collaborator and has defended without any hesitation and forcefully against accusations of links to the criminal world:
I have known Saimir Tahiri for years and I have had only supporting and encouraging words for him, as a person with good aims, ability, and integrity.
But Albania and the Albanians today want and deserve to know the truth, only the truth and nothing but the truth. That’s why all law enforcement organs shouldget to the bottom of this story without losing time, to throw a full light on the facts.
But in 2011, Rama saw things differently. Then he didn’t make any difference between Ilir Meta, implied in the corruption scandal, and then Prime Minister Sali Berisha, placing direct responsibility on Berisha:
It is unjust to say that only Ilir Meta took part in that disgusting smuggling episode. Today it can be said without a doubt that Sali himself had a hand in it.
However, in the case of the proven criminal links of his own minister and right hand, suddenly the prime minister – Rama himself – no longer carries any responsibility. Instead he absolves himself and (kindly) places all the responsibility on Tahiri alone:
But Albania and the Albanians today want and deserve to know the truth, only the truth and nothing but the truth. That’s why all law enforcement organs should get to the bottom of this story without losing time, to throw a full light on the facts.
Even though the corruption implied in the Meta video has no relations to the elections, Edi Rama thought that the government had lost its credibility, had to be removed, and new elections held:
In Albania the elections have fallen, justice has fallen, the entire state has fallen. […] This government has come to an end and should be removed.
Sali leave the government, together with your deputy and anyone else you got and open the way for a political solution so that Albania can be put back on track.
I tell you today from this pulpit, both Sali and his deputy [Meta], that any day that they’re delaying their resignation and the acceptance of new elections as the only way to pull Albania out of total crisis in which they have plunged it, make their position ever worse in front of the people.
But today Edi Rama doesn’t think about either bringing down his government or elections, but swears that he will fight and work more than ever without being discouraged by anything, while condemning the opposition that demands his resignation:
No wavering. No reservation. No doubt: Our war with crime will continue every day with even more force.
We are different and we are fighting every day to make a state, work, wellbeing for the Albania that we love. Different from the Front of the Old Tent [the United Front of the Opposition], we take responsibility for Albania and keep responsibility for everything that we don’t do well or comes to light as our problem.
For as long as we are on the frontlines we have faced wounds, mud, that result from this heavy battle. But we will not surrender and continue to fight crime and criminals until the end, for the Albania we love.
