Paris (AFP)

Are you able to stop alcohol, or at least reduce your consumption, for a month? It is the "Défi de janvier" that offers from Wednesday about thirty associations on the model of an English operation, to the chagrin of the wine lobby.

"It's a mobilizing, fun campaign to try individually and collectively for a break for a month, after the holiday season," said AFP Nathalie Latour, general delegate of the Addiction Federation, one of the organizing associations.

"Step by step, (it's about) arriving at the consumption ban, that's what is behind," judge Bernard Farges, president of the CNAOC, confederation which groups together the 17 main wine regions French appellation, or 70% of the country's winegrowers.

Adaptation of the operation "Dry january" (literally "January dry") launched in 2013 in England, the "Défi de janvier" has for months been in the crosshairs of the alcohol sector, and in particular of the wine world.

According to the organizing associations, the project, unprecedented in France, should initially have been carried by the State. But they accuse him of having given up in mid-November after a meeting between Emmanuel Macron and the champagne producers.

On December 16, the municipal council of Epernay, the Mecca of the prestigious sparkling wine, even adopted a wish to express its opposition to the "Défi de janvier", compared to "prohibition".

"There is no desire for prohibition or total abstinence, it is not at all a moralizing or hygienic campaign", defends Nathalie Latour.

"These products have an important place in French culture. But economic, social and health issues must be balanced," she says.

"Unlike Tobacco-free Month (organized by the public authorities in November, note), the objective is not a total stop: it is a question of taking a break, looking at the moments when we do not consume for pleasure but by incentive, "she continues. "It's the automatic glass, when we go out and we are told + Why aren't you drinking tonight? Are you sick? You're not funny +"

- Addiction -

The "Défi de janvier" is based on a website (dryjanuary.fr) where you can register and find leaflets and posters. "Restaurants, communities who wish can print and display them," according to Nathalie Latour.

You can also download an application in English called Try Dry. Created by the association Alcohol Change, at the origin of the English "Dry january", it helps to achieve its objectives when you decrease or stop your alcohol consumption.

For this first edition, Ms. Latour hopes to "reach the same figures as in England in 2013", or 4,000 registered on the site (knowing that you can participate in the challenge even without being registered).

According to her, this type of campaign exists in 14 countries, including Belgium (where it is called "mineral tour").

"The results are interesting, in the short and medium / long term: the people who participated then manage to better regulate their alcohol consumption," says Ms. Latour.

Among the organizers of the "Défi de janvier", there are associations of addictologists or dedicated to health (like the League against cancer), but also mutuals and youth groups.

Alcohol consumption is the cause of many illnesses (cancers, vascular diseases, etc.) and is responsible for 41,000 deaths a year, making it the second leading cause of preventable death after smoking (75,000), according to l public health agency France.

In addition, according to addictologists, 80% of the alcohol sold in France is consumed by only 20% of the population.

"The + Défi de janvier + is aimed at the general population and not at dependent people, who cannot stop like this", underlines Nathalie Latour.

© 2019 AFP