National
José María Aznar criticised for his comments over wine
By h.b.
May 4, 2007 - 7:22 PM

Spain’s previous Partido Popular Prime Minister, José María Aznar, has got himself into hot water, (or should that be wine?) over comments he made on Thursday after he was presented with a medal by the Wine Academy in Valladolid.

Aznar told those gathered at the event that he was fed up with the DGT traffico advertising campaigns intended to lower the number of fatalities on Spanish roads.

‘I don’t like that they tell me that I can’t go at such a speed’, he said, ‘or that I can’t eat hamburgers or I can’t drink wine. Let me decide for myself – that’s what my freedom means’.

The ex Prime Minister continued ‘The glasses of wine I drink, let me drink them quietly, I don’t put anybody at risk’.

The DGT traffico head, Pere Navarro, said Aznar had been ‘irresponsible’, and that the matter was not one for jokes. All that was needed now, he said, was for Aznar to say it was perfectly fine to drive at 150 km/hour.