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International silence as a vote of no confidence in Edi Rama...
Edi Rama won the May 11 elections, but not the applause. There were no congratulatory telegrams from Washington, no protocol phrases from Berlin, not even friendly jokes from Ankara. The “great victory” of the Sultan of the Renaissance was accompanied by an even greater silence, a silence that speaks louder than any statement.
In 2021, for the last parliamentary elections, Ambassador Yuri Kim was among the first to certify with a "tweet" the victory of the SP. Then, the US State Department came out with an official statement. Rama felt blessed by the West.
This time? Nothing! Not a word! Not from the ambassador, not from the Secretary of State, not from any third-party official in the Balkans Bureau. President Donald Trump was in Riyadh, signing billion-dollar contracts with the Saudi prince. Albania? Off the radar!
Silence from Berlin, Paris has lost its enthusiasm, Erdogan is frozen!
Germany, which has traditionally been the clearest monitor of attitudes towards the Balkans, was completely silent. Not a word from the new Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Not a line from Olaf Scholz, who, although leaving, has been the most important figure of German social democracy.
A silence that does not come from forgetfulness, but from a cold attitude towards a leader who in Berlin is increasingly seen as a problem and not as a partner.
Macron's France, which once hung a medal on Edi Rama's chest and gave him sneakers for his "rebellious style of a Balkan socialist", has not said a word. There is no protocol message, no communiqué, nothing.
Mitsotakis from Greece, another strategic ally of the EU, not only has not congratulated him, but is expected to come out publicly about the violations in Himara, where the vote was violated through immigration, fear and the disallowance of independent candidacies.
And above all, the silence that kills the most is the one coming from Ankara. President Erdogan, who in 2021 donated a hospital in Fier to Rama for campaigning, is today silent, frozen, and sidelined. Circles close to him in Ankara are already talking about a serious cooling off with Edi Rama, who is rumored to have aligned himself closer to the Israeli lobby and interests that no longer align with Turkey's neo-Ottoman approach.
The official website of the Turkish embassy in Tirana, which used to list every meeting with Rama, has stopped posting since April 30. A sign of a "diplomatic freeze" that has only just begun.
Who greeted Rama? Meloni, Zelensky and a 'British in trouble'
From the entire world map, Edi Rama proudly published only three congratulations: Giorgia Meloni, now a friend of Gjadri's camp; Volodymyr Zelensky; and the British Keir Starmer, who needs foreign allies more than to express his assessment of the elections in Albania. Oh, I forgot, Viktor Orban too!
It is a list as ironic as it is lame. Meloni belongs to the other ideological extreme and represents that “geopolitical importance that comes at the price of refugees”. Zelensky is at war. Starmer is in transition. Neither is a certifier of a functioning democracy. Neither represents the standard that Rama would like for himself.
Not a word was said, because everything has been said.
Silence is a classy refusal. Neither the US, nor the EU, nor the regional powers said anything, because they did not want to lie anymore. Instead of hailing “free and fair elections,” they chose not to mention Albania at all.
And this is more serious than any criticism. Because in diplomacy, when they don't say anything to you, it means you've fallen off the list of true political interest. They tolerate you, but they don't consider you anymore.
If Edi Rama wanted to hear any applause for his "historic victories," it won't come from the West. It will come from the voices that use him, let him win territorially, but have decided not to take him anywhere beyond Albania.
Because there is no victory when there is no trust. And the silence of the West is the first vote of no confidence in the man who speaks to the world on behalf of a republic that no one represents anymore./ Pamphlet
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