Prime Minister Edi Rama said Monday that the suspension of Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku has hindered the functioning of the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, calling the move unprecedented and institutionally damaging.

Rama convened the Socialist Party’s parliamentary group at the Presidency of the Assembly, where he addressed what he described as the “other side of the medal” in logical and political terms regarding Balluku’s suspension.

He argued that the measure — imposed during a preliminary court session — does not merely affect the individual under investigation but disrupts the work of an entire government institution.

“What makes the suspension of a member of the government by a prosecutor or a judge in a preliminary hearing scandalous is the fact that the suspension does not impact the individual — who is presumed to be under investigation — but an entire institution,” Rama said.

According to the prime minister, the ministry’s ability to function effectively has been compromised. He stressed that once a minister is suspended, the institution cannot properly represent itself at meetings of the Council of Ministers, effectively freezing its decision-making capacity.

“When a minister is suspended, the work of an institution is suspended. That ministry has no capacity to represent anything in the Council of Ministers because it has no representative,” Rama said, adding that this reality alone should have been sufficient to end what he called an “absurd debate.”

Rama also criticized what he described as Albania’s weak democratic and rule-of-law culture, rooted in its historical legacy, arguing that constitutional principles and the spirit of democratic separation of powers should guide institutional decisions even when not explicitly detailed in statutory law.

“There is not a single case in Europe where a member of the government has been suspended by a prosecutor or a judge,” Rama said.

The suspension of Balluku has intensified political debate in Albania over judicial authority, separation of powers and the balance between prosecutorial action and executive governance.