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Businessman Artur Shehu breaks his silence: I am a long-time land owner in Zvërnec, I don't know the investors at all

Albanian businessman Artur Shehu spoke on the Opinion show...

I voted for "bread of the mouth..."

2025-11-09 10:07:00, Opinione Ardi Stefa

At the next table, two middle-aged men were drinking coffee after voting.
"Did you vote?" one asked. "Who?"
"I voted for my livelihood!" his friend replied in a low voice, looking around in disbelief.

This is probably the saddest and most common sentence heard after every election in Albania.
"I voted for my livelihood", "for my job", "because they helped me", "because we will help me", "they promised me"...

In essence, it is the most honest account of a slavery that does not need shackles and chains, poverty, fear, dependence are enough. A vote given for bread, for a job, is not a free vote; it is a sale of dignity, it is the clearest indicator of our democratic culture, of our spiritual, social, economic poverty, of our submission. It is the justification of a society that has not yet understood that today's bread, taken as alms, is tomorrow's hunger.

It doesn't matter if it comes from the POSITION or the OPPOSITION; it's always the same story, the same mechanism of addiction, the same shame recycled after every election. Some use it to justify buying votes, others to justify their surrender. But essentially, both sides feed off the same wound: poverty, fear, and hopelessness.

When a vote is sold for a job, the power that comes from it is no longer free, it is a hostage to those who bought it, to those who keep it alive through our poverty. A power that rises on fearful and bought votes can never be just, honest or for the citizen. It is a power that administers misery as political capital.

A vote born of fear cannot produce freedom or progress. A government that is built on the poverty of its citizens has no interest in eradicating it; on the contrary, it keeps it alive as a means of control.

A vote is an act of dignity, not a reward. The moment you turn it into a favor, you have agreed to no longer be a citizen, but a customer. And customers don't demand accountability, they expect "the next rent," some crumb.

And the vicious circle is completed: power is gained not by merit, but by exploitation. Then, it ensures that poverty continues, so that in the next elections there will be “clients” to buy again. In this way, political freedom is replaced by a relationship of vassalage.

Such a vote is not a voice, it is silence. It is not a choice, but a surrender. And a power that comes from such a vote is not legitimate, because it does not stem from the free conscience of the citizen, but from his economic dependence. It is a power of fear, not of trust.

The position does it to keep power.
The opposition does it to take it.
Both invest in fear and do it at the expense of a citizen who no longer has power, voice, or dignity!

The power that arises from a bought vote will rule at the price of that vote: with dry bread and missing freedom.

So, perhaps we should no longer vote for bread and charity, but for dignity. So that bread is no longer a reason to be submissive!