French booze-free January falls flat with Macron government

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
...And they say that a campaign that enjoyed government financial and moral backing would reach far more people than the 16,000 who signed up in 2023.

The allegation that the president personally discouraged support for Dry January is backed by his very public endorsement of alcohol in the past.

In 2022 he was elected Personality of the Year by the Review of French Wines magazine after he said he drank wine twice every day, at lunch and at dinner.

Last June he was filmed downing a bottle of Corona beer in one, in the changing room of the Stade Toulousain rugby team at the Stade de France - inviting accusations that he was encouraging binge drinking.

With the wine industry bringing in €9bn (£7.7bn; $10bn) in foreign sales every year, the decision to champion French winemakers is certainly rational. But critics say drinking publicly is also partly a man-of-the-people act that the president puts on to counter the charge that he is "out-of-touch"."