Why the US's congratulations on the elections are a 'slap' for Edi Rama, the comparison with Bucharest

The United States Embassy in Tirana sent congratulations yesterday after about two weeks regarding the May 11 elections.

In a very short message, the embassy addresses the Albanian people, but not the winner of the elections, Edi Rama, who, like never before, won 83 seats in the Assembly and secured a 4th mandate. 

"We congratulate the people of Albania on the parliamentary elections and look forward to continuing our close partnership with Albania," the embassy wrote yesterday.

A stream of reactions poured in since yesterday, 'reading' the message that the embassy was essentially conveying, and specifically the failure to mention the winner in the text of the reaction. 

To better understand this detail, we bring to your attention the reaction of the 'Trump' administration to the elections of another country not far from Albania. The embassy congratulated Bucharest officially just two days after the elections, on May 20 of this year. 

In the message to the Romanian state, the US embassy addresses the winner by name, specifically the new president Nicușor Dan, unlike the "dry" message to Albania, which analysts interpret as a negative signal for the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama. 

"We look forward to working with Nicușor Dan, as President of Romania, and with the new government, to promote our shared priorities, such as defense, energy, and trade partnerships, " the United States diplomatic mission in Romania wrote on social media. 

Also, we recall that the 'greeting' of the Albanian elections did not even meet the standards of the small Caribbean state of Belize.

In the case of Albania, the Embassy made the congratulations, in the case of Belize, the Department of State, in the first case the Albanian people were congratulated, in the second, nominally, the winning prime minister. What made the irony of the congratulations even sharper was that the Embassy spoke of partnership with the people of Albania - not with the government.