Dispute over magistrates’ salaries/BIRN: Rama aims to divert attention and public debate from daily protests

The dispute over magistrates’ salaries has developed into a new public clash between Prime Minister Edi Rama and the justice system, which political analysts say is intended to divert attention and public debate away from the daily protests.

Prime Minister Edi Rama began the week with a public attack on judges over the calculation of their salaries, after the majority he leads delayed implementing the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the matter.

“Never in the history of the world have judges said that they will take the money themselves from the state treasury because it belongs to them, and this claim that ‘we collected it ourselves’ is in itself appalling in terms of the shocking level of ignorance about how the state functions,” Rama wrote on the X platform, commenting on a media interview with the head of the Judges’ Association, Engert Pëllumbi.

Judges and prosecutors have been a favorite target of Prime Minister Edi Rama in recent years, regardless of the various issues over which he has engaged in debate.

In the latest dispute over salaries, the prime minister sought to shift the debate away from the obligation to implement a Constitutional Court ruling and toward the high salaries of judges and prosecutors in Albania.

The dispute began after the Ministry of Finance and State Treasury directorates refused to allocate August salaries for all magistrates in the justice system according to a new calculation made by the Councils based on a Constitutional Court ruling.

In the prime minister’s rhetoric, Albanian judges are portrayed as an overpaid group, and any further salary increase would burden the state budget and result in salaries dozens of times higher than those in other sectors.

But political analysts say the prime minister is using this rhetoric to attack justice institutions for political reasons and is attempting to redirect the “public anger” that, through more than 100 days of protests, has been focused on his government.

Afrim Krasniqi of the Institute for Political Studies told BIRN that the prime minister has two objectives that are unrelated to resolving the problem and instead serve his parallel agendas.

First, according to Krasniqi, he is seeking to use the case to exert pressure on the justice system, which has also prompted a smear campaign by his activists and supporters.

“This is an important indication at a time when SPAK will have to make decisions concerning the deputy prime minister’s immunity, the Zvërnec investigations and other high-profile cases,” Krasniqi said.

He added that “Rama is seeking to shift the attention of the media and the public away from the debate over scandals and criticism of misgovernment and corruption, and toward a monologue against the justice system.”

Krasniqi calls this a “monologue” because the prime minister is issuing public comments and statements against a system that does not respond to him because it is collective, discreet and acts through legal instruments.

Meanwhile, Neritan Sejamini views the prime minister’s attacks on justice institutions as a tactic to divert public attention and debate away from the daily protests by citizens demanding the prime minister’s resignation.

“I think it is simply a tactic to divert attention away from his problems and create another target toward which public anger can also be channeled, rather than focusing solely on him,” Sejamini said.

In February, the Constitutional Court found that the formula used to calculate magistrates’ salaries had resulted in a “concealed reduction” in pay and ordered Parliament to adopt the necessary legal amendments to bring salaries into line with constitutional standards.

The Court set July 31, 2026, as the deadline, while the financial effects were to apply retroactively from April 1, 2023. However, by the end of this deadline, Parliament had not adopted the required amendments, leaving unresolved the method for calculating salaries from August 1 onward.

In August, the High Judicial Council and the High Prosecutorial Council, interpreting the ruling as binding, decided to set judges’ salaries in accordance with the Constitutional Court’s reasoning, using a reference base salary of 222,000 lek and an additional 14,000 lek for qualifications, as well as compensation for the increase not received since April 2023.

Instead of remaining an issue concerning the implementation of a constitutional ruling, the dispute has turned into a public clash between the prime minister and the judiciary, after the Ministry of Finance refused to implement the salary formula under the High Judicial Council’s decision, resulting in the minister and Treasury directors being sued in court.

According to Krasniqi, the prime minister is avoiding the very heart of the problem, namely why the majority and Parliament are not implementing Constitutional Court rulings.

“Respecting this principle and these constitutional obligations would have prevented the crisis, the debate and the resulting cost to citizens,” Krasniqi said.

On the other hand, Krasniqi believes that the High Judicial Council and the High Prosecutorial Council rushed their decisions without informing the public or first pursuing other available mechanisms.

“With the same passion, speed and professionalism with which the justice system defended its own constitutional rights in the salary case, it should also defend the public interest against corruption by senior officials. In other words, it should address high-profile cases and demonstrate that the process of accountability, equality before the law and facing the consequences of abuse and violations of the law is irreversible and guaranteed,” he concluded./BIRN