While judges are waiting for their salary increases to be implemented, a much bigger question is being raised in Albania: how can the government argue over access to the state treasury when senior officials and former ministers linked to Edi Rama’s governments have faced serious corruption and abuse-of-office investigations involving millions of euros?
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| Finance Minister Petrit Malaj faces a criminal complaint filed with SPAK by magistrates' associations regarding the blocking of judicial salary increases, sparking wider questions about government spending priorities and high-level corruption investigations in Albania. |
Prime Minister Edi Rama has defended Malaj, acknowledging that the minister had consulted with the government before taking his decision. Rama argued that Parliament, rather than the judiciary, must authorize the necessary budget expenditure.
But the controversy goes beyond the salaries of judges.
Albania has witnessed a growing number of investigations and prosecutions involving senior public officials, including ministers and former senior government figures. Several former Rama officials have faced arrest, detention or criminal proceedings in cases involving allegations of corruption, abuse of office and the misuse of public funds.
That creates an increasingly uncomfortable contrast: the state appears to have endless disputes over paying judges what the Constitutional Court has ordered, while allegations involving millions of euros in public money have become a recurring feature of Albania’s political landscape.
For many Albanians, the issue is therefore not simply about whether Parliament should approve the funds. It is about priorities, accountability and the credibility of a political system in which ordinary public servants can face delays over their legally determined salaries while senior officials are investigated over allegations involving enormous sums of money.
The government insists that the salary increases will eventually be implemented through Parliament and in accordance with the Constitutional Court’s decision.
But the political question remains: if there is money to be spent, why does the state treasury become so difficult to open when the beneficiaries are judges, while allegations of multimillion-euro abuses continue to surround the country’s political establishment?