In a video message posted on social media, the government head stated his appeal was not about defending an individual cabinet member, but about safeguarding constitutional boundaries between branches of power.

Rama said he had filed the case in his capacity “as Prime Minister, not as Edi Rama,” arguing that allowing prosecutors and judges to suspend cabinet members would amount to “an impermissible breach” of the separation of powers, citing earlier opinions from the Venice Commission.

“This is an institutional legal battle to prevent an overreach by the judiciary into the composition of the executive,” he said. “If such a suspension were legitimised, it would set a dangerous precedent unseen elsewhere in Europe.”

According to Rama, suspending a Minister effectively amounts to removing them from office, undermining the Prime Minister’s exclusive authority to shape the cabinet and parliament’s authority to approve it.

He warned that allowing prosecutors to initiate such suspensions could open the door to political pressure, institutional instability and manipulation of the executive through criminal proceedings.

Rama dismissed political opponents who have accused him of interference, saying the issue concerns the long-term balance of power in Albania, regardless of personalities or governments.

He said he had a duty to publicly explain his institutional stance and urged the Constitutional Court to avoid creating a “harmful and unprecedented novelty” in democratic judicial practice.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama announced the move during a joint press conference with EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos after the EU Growth Plan Summit in Tirana earlier today.

Rama said it was unprecedented for a prosecutor and a judge to “meet head to head” and suspend a member of the government. He called the decision “a direct violation of the independence and functioning of another independent branch, the executive,” arguing that the ruling encroached on the powers of the prime minister, the president and parliament.

He said the government would respect the suspension order and avoid “any kind of retaliatory arbitrariness or political confrontation with the judiciary,” but would seek protection of the executive branch’s constitutional competencies through the Constitutional Court.

“That is who we are. That is who I am, and it will remain so until the end of my mandate,” Rama said, adding that safeguarding the independence of the reformed justice system remained his government’s priority.

The Special Court has imposed two security measures on Balluku: suspension from duty and a ban on leaving the country.

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