'It's not French culture to not have wine': Does France do 'Le Dry January'?

Dry January - the challenge to go the entire first month of the year without drinking any alcohol - has been around since 2013, when it was first invented by the British non-profit Alcohol Change UK.

Since then, it has spread all over the world, making its way to France - a nation famous for its love of wine - where it is referred to as the 'défi de janvier', 'janvier sobre', or simply 'Dry January' (pronounced with a French accent).

In the early years, approximately 4,000 people 'officially' participated in the challenge, according to Le Point, though it remained relatively obscure in France until 2020, when the concept began to gain popularity.

In late 2023, a nationwide survey of adults by OpinionWay found that 75 percent of people in France are now familiar with Dry January.

In addition to becoming more widely known, more French people are also expressing interest in going a month alcohol-free.

The survey found that 38 percent of adults aged 25-34 intended to participate in 2024, and of those surveyed, almost a third (29 percent) said they considered themselves "ready to take on the challenge" of Dry January, compared with just 13 percent in 2020.

According to the association Addictions France, over 16,000 people in France officially signed up for the 2023 edition, with many others doing so informally.

The challenge has inspired mailing lists, websites, and even mobile phone applications, like the free 'Try Dry' app, which helps participants keep track of their drinking, as well as calculating the money and calories saved in avoiding a drink both in January and throughout the year.

But despite the growing public appetite for an alcohol-free month, the French government has opted not to back the sobriety campaign.

In November, 48 doctors and addiction experts penned an open letter in November 2023 urging the president, Emmanuel Macron, to encourage the campaign. Failing to receive support, they reiterated this appeal at the start of January in another open letter in Le Monde.

Explaining the government's stance, one ministerial aide told BFMTV: "We're not going to tell people not to drink, it's not part of our culture to go without wine or beer. But we do feel that it's no longer the case that you can drink a bottle every day".

While the current health minister, Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo, did not respond to the TV channel's inquiries, the former minister, Aurélien Rousseau, said at the beginning of December that he was "personally, very suspicious or cautious when someone says that the government should launch a campaign on how to live for a month".

In a separate interview with Franceinfo, Rousseau did say that he would personally go sober during January and encouraged the French to "consume alcohol in moderation, even before January".

In a similar tone, the agriculture minister Marc Fesneau - whose remit includes France's powerful wine lobby - told France Inter that he preferred "measure and moderation rather than prohibition and permanent demands". 

In 2020, the national health agency, Santé Publique France (SPF), considered joining the Dry January campaign, but eventually decided against it. According to Ouest France, as of 2023, the SPF did not offer any funding to Dry January.

French president Emmanuel Macron, referred to as the 'President of wine' by the association Addictions France, is considered by some to be one of the country's most 'pro-alcohol' presidents since World War II.

In 2017, president picked Audrey Bourolleau to be his agriculture adviser. Bourolleau was at the time the head of Vin et Société, a large lobby for the wine industry.

Macron has also told the press that he enjoys a glass of wine with lunch and dinner, and in 2022, the French wine magazine, Revue du vin de France, even named the president the 'personality of the year'.

The president must also contend with France's status as the second largest consumer of wine after the United States, according to the Guardian.

Krystel Lepresle, the current head of the Vin et Société lobby told BFMTV that "if the government strategy were to move toward a total ban on drinking alcohol, then that would be incompatible with the economic health of France." French wine production accounts for nearly €12 billion per year.

Under Macron, the French government has put forward some campaigns to decrease alcohol consumption.

Alcohol consumption has also been decreasing in recent years in France - between 1960 and 2014, the average intake per adult dropped from 17.7 litres a year to 9.2, according to Our World in Data.

READ MORE: ANALYSIS: Why the French are drinking less and less wine

The former minister of health told Franceinfo that their priorities, as of December 2023, were "young people, who turn to alcohol and engage in dangerous behaviour", as well as "pregnant women, who can have irreversible consequences on the baby's health."

But to addictologists, like Bernard Basset with Addictions France, this "hierarchisation" is not surprising. "The wine lobby wants schemes that do not focus on the general population, but instead on specific targets like young people and pregnant women," Basset told Franceinfo.

Claude Rambaud, the vice president of the health organisation 'Assos Santé', also told the French media that "Dry January is not moralistic. We are not telling people how to behave, but on the contrary we are asking them to take stock of their behaviour".

In their open letter, French health experts argued that alcohol consumption remains too high in France, causing at least 49,000 excess deaths per year, and that government campaigns tend to be more effective in convincing people.