Muscadet winegrowers complain, the department withdraws its panels

Muscadet harvest in Clisson (illustration).

-

• The departmental council had ordered 15 signs referring to the dangers of drinking and driving.

• The winegrowers criticized the visual on the grounds that it represents only one glass of wine and that it would stigmatize the profession.

• The panels have been removed.

  Those involved in road safety are furious.

The decision of the Loire-Atlantique departmental council arouses the indignation of road safety associations.

Several signs conveying a message of prevention against the dangers of drinking and driving were removed at the end of July, just a few days after their installation, at the request of the winegrowers of the Nantes vineyard, reports the communication service of the department, confirming information from

.

All of the 15 panels ordered (not all had been installed) by the community will be modified.

At issue: a pictogram representing a glass of alcohol associated with a pictogram of a car leaving the road.

Our investigation of the signs removed this summer on the dangers of alcohol.

#muscadet #viticulture #LoireAtlantiquehttps: //t.co/clVUVAwijr

- Hebdo Sèvre & Maine (@HebdoSevreMaine) September 18, 2020

"The visual could be misinterpreted"

The visual, which was part of a global campaign also raising awareness of the dangers of mobile phones and speed, did not please wine growers at all.

They blame him for stigmatizing wine and for suggesting that a single glass would promote accidents.

Their anger was all the more keen as one of the famous panels had been placed in the direct vicinity of the musacdet vines.

The professionals, supported by the Nantes wine federation, were moved by the departmental councilor of the sector, who immediately raised the request to the top of the departmental executive.

“We understood their remarks, justifies the Loire-Atlantique departmental council, questioned by

.

The visual could indeed be misinterpreted.

For us, it symbolized the extra glass.

For others, it symbolized the consumption of a single glass of wine.

We did not want to stigmatize a profession.

The deployment of the panels was therefore immediately suspended.

"

The 15 supports will be reinstalled in a few weeks after the adoption of a new visual, produced in consultation with the wine profession.

"The community gives in to the alcohol lobby"

This back-pedaling shocks the League against road violence.

“The community gives in to a local lobby and, more generally, to the alcohol lobby, deplores Claude Chabot, spokesperson for the association in Loire-Atlantique.

There was nothing wrong with the sign.

Alcohol is symbolically represented by a stemmed glass everywhere in Europe!

This is not the first time that winegrowers have become angry with campaigns of this type.

It is regrettable.

Road safety should be everyone's business.

"

The League against road violence, which promises that "this episode will not remain without result", said "surprise because this departmental council used to seriously address the subject of road safety".

In June 2019, the Socialist President, Philippe Grosvalet, opposed a relaxation of the speed limit to 80 km / h in the name of road safety.

According to

, the fifteen panels to be modified would have cost the community 33,000 euros.

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• Road accident

• Nantes

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