The new French health minister risked souring his relations with President Emmanuel Macron, a big wine lover, by declaring that he would participate in the month of January without alcohol.
Yannick Neuder, who took office a fortnight ago, told French media he would abstain from drinking in January – something he said he does every year – and touted the benefits of going without alcohol. alcohol for a month.
The “January Challenge” is a way “to encourage the French to think about their consumption habits and to become aware of the benefit of a break, which can be extended beyond the month of January,” declared the 55-year-old cardiologist at Le Parisien newspaper.
According to a recent survey commissioned by the non-alcoholic wine producer Chavin, around 17 million French people, or a quarter of the population, intend to follow the month of dry January.
However, Mr Neuder is the first French minister to have publicly supported the alcohol-free month, according to local media, and he clarified that he was doing so “in a personal capacity”. This clarification is not surprising given that the trend has never received official support and was reportedly rejected by Mr Macron several years ago after a meeting with winemakers.
The Dry January campaign was launched in 2013 in the UK by a charity and now takes place every year in the country, with the support of Public Health England.
It has also gained prominence around the world, and in 2019 the French Ministry of Health announced plans for the Élysée to support the initiative. This proposal, however, aroused the anger of the wine industry, which urged the government to abandon the idea. Macron sided with the industry and reportedly told French winemakers that there would be no Dry January as long as he was president.
Mr Macron, who was voted personality of the year by the Review of French Wines magazine in 2022, has previously said that he drinks two glasses of wine a day and that “a meal without wine is a bit sad”.
Former French health minister Agnès Buzyn, who led the ultimately doomed Dry January campaign in 2019, said in an interview last year that it was an “almost battle impossible to carry out in our country, in reality.”
-“You have too many headwinds,” she told television channel France 2, referring in particular to the weight of French wine lobbies and the status of wine as an “image of French culture.”
France is the second largest consumer of wine in the world, second only to the United States, and the country's wine industry is estimated to employ nearly half a million people and generate some €13 billion in revenue per year.
Mr Neuder's commitment to “Dry January” has raised eyebrows in some quarters, given that he opposed an increase in alcohol taxes last year and defended wine industry.
“It is not because you increase the price of a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape by seven centimes that you will reduce the mortality rate among young people,” Mr Neuder said during a debate in November , while he was a simple politician. “I don’t think young people are getting drunk on Châteauneuf-du-Pape. We must stop attacking our winegrowers.”
In an interview with BFMTV last month, after being named Minister of Health and before his “Dry January” declaration, Mr. Neuder said he was “not at the behest of any health lobby.” 'alcohol”.
Last year, at the same time, dozens of French professors specializing in the study of addictions wrote to the government to urge it to support “Dry January”, arguing that the measures taken to combat the risks of alcohol for health were insufficient.
According to data from the French Ministry of Health, alcohol consumption is responsible for 49,000 deaths each year in the country and represents “a major public health issue”.
