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In the news: A president who is partial to expletives

 
Czech Republic's President Milos Zeman talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Monday, Oct. 27, 2014. (AP Photo/Parker Song, Pool)
Czech Republic's President Milos Zeman talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Monday, Oct. 27, 2014. (AP Photo/Parker Song, Pool)
Published Nov. 5, 2014

Embarrassing act

A president who is partial to expletives

President Milos Zeman is supposed to represent the Czech Republic, but at the moment he is causing lots of embarrassment instead. In a live radio interview Sunday, he made use of an astonishingly large vocabulary of swearwords, some of them in English.

In reference to the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, which frequently protests Russian President Vladimir Putin's politics, he used the words "f----d up" and "s---."

"Know what p---- means in English?" Zeman asked the interviewer. While trying to translate the band's name into Czech, he chose a vulgar description that drew even stronger criticism.

The Czech prime minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, was among those who strongly condemned the incident: "The president should not speak in such a way as it damages the reputation of the presidency, sets a bad example and does nothing for our reputation abroad."

Zeman has not publicly apologized.

Washington Post