Photo credit: German Medeot
I love those stories in which famous actors or sports personalities get their comeuppance. In fact, if it is a politician then so much the better.
I just read about the French minister who got caught speeding as he tested a new green car. The chap in question is Arnaud Monteboury, which is the minister of something mysterious called Social Recovery. First of all, he was brought in a Renault Zoe by his chauffeur to the Elysée Palace.
He then moved over to take the wheel but forgot to put on his seat belt before driving away. Things then got worse when the D’Artagnan of the Left (yes, he is really called that it seems) said that he wanted to see “what she’s got in her” and the TV camera saw the speedometer go up to 66 km per hour, which is well over the inner city speed limit in France.
The offence could see him fined 90 Euros and have a point taken from his licence.
And the First Convicted Driver Is?
This reminded me of a story which happened when I first moved here to Bolivia. It seems that they had always been very lax on drink driving (they still are). A new law came out which meant that theoretically you would lose your licence if you got caught, among other sanctions.
Well, a couple of days after the law was introduced, a government minister called Patzi became the first person to get his collar felt. My Spanish still wasn’t very good at the time but I enjoyed watching the scandal on the news. He ended up making mud bricks near Lake Titicaca, which I always assumed was some of social punishment in place of going to jail, although I didn’t understand a lot of the final interview I saw in which he was covered in mud and apparently very repentant.
The lesson: stay away from politicians. They make really bad drivers.