Watch: Macron drinks beer at the same table with rugby players from Toulouse

Emmanuel Macron in the stands of the Stade de France on Saturday. Photo: Julien de Rosa/AFP

Jean-Luc Mudenc, Mayor of Toulouse, told local radio station France Bleu: “It was a very pleasant, very spontaneous moment. The president was asked to empty a small can [actually a bottle] and did so in a matter of seconds. After that, he was sprayed profusely by the players, who, naturally, after such [match] tension let off steam.”

The reaction was predictably mixed. France Rugby World said: «Macron knocks Corona down. This is the rugby we love!»

However, Bernard Basset, head of Addictions France, told RT radio: «He associates the sport with partying and drinking in a situation of masculine imitation when everyone drinks, not a lot. He is flippant about situations that encourage people to drink, which is very negative for us.”

Some commented that Mr Macron was better received in the dressing rooms than on the pitch, where he was booed briefly.

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He used to argue with his former Minister of Health over whether wine should be treated like any other alcohol, or whether it should be treated as a valuable French gastronomic asset.

«It's a public health disease where young people get drunk on alcohol or beer at a breakneck pace, but that's not the case with wine,» Macron said in 2018. age-old pleasure.”