Albanians usually mind their language and swear words are a taboo in public speech, but politicians have increasingly been using vulgar expletives to insult their opponents.
Vangjush Dako, 52, has had a fascinating career.
After starting out as a businessman in the construction industry when he was 25, he became a senior state official by the time he was 35 and mayor of Durres, Albania’s second-largest city, at the age of 41.
He only won the position narrowly almost 12 years ago, but his electoral results have improved since then, and he is now reaching the end of his third mandate as mayor.
However, his career has been marred recently by a police investigation into a major drug-smuggling organisation that intercepted several phone calls between Dako and several suspected members of the criminal group. Based on that, the opposition has claimed that his electoral victories were facilitated by organised crime networks in Durres.
When he was asked on Klan TV on October 25 if he did speak with some of the people who were arrested for drug-smuggling, he responded angrily.”There is no son of a bitch that speaks with voters more than I do,” he told the national prime-time audience.
During the days that followed, Dako took the opportunity to express his rich vocabulary further. In a series of Facebook posts, he repeatedly used obscene language to insult the head of the opposition, LulzimBasha.
“You are [former Prime Minister Sali] Berisha’s d*******,” he said in one post.
He was more moderate when he insulted opposition MP Ervin Salianji, however, calling him “vermin”.
“You will end up as food for chicken,” Dako said. “However, I doubt chicken will accept vermin like you to eat.”
Meanwhile, after former Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri, who is currently under investigation on drug charges, claimed he was being persecuted by the system, Democratic Party MP Edi Paloka called him “a whore claiming to be a virgin”.
Elona Guri, a member of the Council of Socialist Movement of Integration, went even further, writing a vulgar verse about Tahiri: “Like a whore you seek virginity, with bastard children hidden to escape justice.”
For more read the full of article at The Balkaninsight
