At the height of tensions surrounding the protests, Prime Minister Edi Rama has come forward with a financial promise for the State Police: an extra €2,500 for every officer deployed on the ground. At the same time, he said a salary increase is also expected from January, linking it to preparations for the new budget.
The promise of €2,500 for every officer
During a conference with police employees, Rama said that every officer on this “front” of the protest will benefit from an extra €2,500.
According to the version he gave, the amount has been set the same for everyone, regardless of salary level or position, with the argument that there should be no differentiation among the officers engaged.
Pay rise from January, according to the government
The prime minister also said the government is preparing a significant salary increase for the State Police starting in January.
According to him, this is not linked only to developments in recent days, but to discussions that, Rama said, began several weeks earlier during work on the new budget. He said the minister had also made this plan public earlier.
Political message at a moment of tension
The statement comes at a time when the government is facing protests and is choosing to send a direct signal of financial support for law enforcement forces.
In essence, this is a political announcement with budgetary cost, made in a heated public climate, while full details have still not been made public on the number of beneficiaries, the total bill, or the mechanism for how the additional payment will be implemented.
What Rama said about police salaries
In his remarks, Rama acknowledged that police salaries, in his view, have not increased as much as they should have over the years, although he recalled that the government had previously carried out a significant increase.
He presented the State Police as the “foundation of the state,” using this as the argument for the new intervention on wages and for the bonus announced for officers in the field.
So far, the announcement remains at the level of a political declaration, and the financial and administrative elements that would make the announced measure verifiable have not been publicly presented.
It remains to be seen whether the promise of an extra €2,500 and the pay rise from January will be formalized in budget documents and the relevant acts.