Rama on Arben Ahmetaj: I had backed a “carnival mask,” not a credible public figure

Prime Minister Edi Rama commented on the SPAK investigations and the allegations against officials of the Socialist Party, also addressing the case of former Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj.

During an interview with journalist Rudina Xhunga on the Prime Minister’s podcast, “Flasim,” Rama said that his investment had been in a “carnival mask,” not in a public asset worthy of trust.

“In the case being mentioned, I had invested in a carnival mask, not in a public asset to be trusted. If it turns out that the human resource in which you invested is tainted and the person you valued was merely a carnival mask, then it is painful, but that is the fact,” Rama said.

He added that so far he had not seen any intervention in the state budget proven in court through evidence. According to him, the SPAK case file on the incinerators contains allegations and several clear elements of abuse, as he and the Socialists consider them, but he has still not seen anything significant concerning the state budget.

Rama also stated that if allegations were to serve as a basis for not appointing someone or immediately dismissing them, then he himself would have to leave office from morning until night because of the large number of allegations against him. This, the prime minister said, had led him to believe that other people could also be wrongfully accused, just as he had been.