The institutional clash over blocked salaries for magistrates has entered a more tense phase. Prosecutor General Olsian Çela has called an urgent meeting at the central headquarters of the prosecution, at a time when the judiciary and the executive are offering different versions of how the issue should be resolved.
Urgent meeting at the General Prosecution Office
According to published information, the meeting has been requested to take place in Tirana tomorrow at 10:00. Expected at the table are heads of district prosecution offices, the Albanian Prosecutors Association, and also members of the High Prosecutorial Council.
Çela’s move signals that within the prosecution system, a common position is being sought before the salary debate takes on a more open form of confrontation with other institutions.
Blocked salaries and the Constitutional Court’s reaction
During the day, there was also a reaction from the Constitutional Court regarding the blocked salaries of judges and prosecutors. According to this development, the two councils had calculated the new salaries based on a formula requested by the Constitutional Court itself.
This makes it even less clear why the issue remains frozen, despite the fact that within the system steps appear to have been taken to implement a formula claimed to stem from constitutional decision-making.
The government pushes the solution toward the law and Parliament
On the other side, Justice Minister Toni Gogu has offered a political and procedural reading of the issue. According to him, the salary problem cannot be resolved through administrative interpretations, but by law and through Parliament.
The minister has stated that on July 30 the new draft law on salaries was sent to Parliament. This means the executive is placing the solution through the parliamentary filter, while within the justice system an immediate position is being sought on the current blockage.
A clash that goes beyond salary mechanics
At its core, the issue does not appear to be only a debate over a financial formula. It is highlighting tension between justice institutions, the system’s governing bodies and the government over who has the final say on an issue that directly affects the material independence of magistrates.
The meeting called by Çela is expected to serve as a test of the position the prosecution will take in relation to this deadlock, whether there will be a common institutional front or only a procedural reaction to a crisis that is dragging on.
For the moment, what is known is that the prosecution system is entering urgent consultations, while the government insists that the solution passes through Parliament.
This leaves the debate over magistrates’ salaries between two lines of logic: one seeking immediate institutional implementation and the other pushing decision-making toward politics and the legislative process.