Macron downs Corona bottle while cheered on by Toulouse rugby players
Allez les booze! Emmanuel Macron downs a bottle of Corona in one while cheered on by Toulouse rugby players as he visits their changing room
- Video shows Emmanuel Macron downing a bottle of Corona at Stade de France
He can often be seen chanting ‘Allez Les Bleus’ from the stands while cheering on French sports stars.
But it was more a case of ‘allez les booze’ as French President Emmanuel Macron downed a bottle of Corona in front of cheering rugby players at the weekend.
The 45-year-old tilted his head back and chugged the beer down in one in the Toulouse changing room following the team’s dramatic 29-26 win over La Rochelle – a win that clinched the domestic league title.
As Macron slammed the empty bottle back on the counter, he was met with the resounding cheers from the Toulouse coaching staff and players following their victory in the French Top 14 final at the Stade de France on Saturday night.
Macron, who had watched the match from the VIP lounge, was then seen smiling broadly and shaking the rugby players’ hands.
Afterwards, players and staff had agreed to take a ‘vow of silence’ over Macron’s antics, reports Le Figaro. But the footage emerged on French TV channels before going viral on social media.
French President Emmanuel Macron today caused a stir after he downed a bottle of Corona in one while being cheered on by Toulouse rugby players after they clinched the domestic league title at the weekend
It quickly went from the French sports rallying cry of Allez les bleus to allez les booze for the 45-year-old leader after video emerged of him inhaling the bottle of beer in the Toulouse changing room following their dramatic 29-26 win over La Rochelle
After being handed the beer and urged to down it in one, Macron drains the Corona bottle in 17 seconds before slamming it back on the counter to resounding cheers from the Toulouse coaching staff and players after their victory in the French Top 14 final at the Stade de France on Saturday night.
The response to Macron’s antics were mixed – with some saying that it was a ‘very nice, spontaneous moment’ while others slammed it as illustrative of ‘toxic masculinity’.
Toulouse coach Clément Poitrenaud said: ‘All I can tell you is that he got a good reception.
Jean-Luc Moudenc, the mayor of Toulouse, told local French radio station France Bleu, added: ‘IT was a very nice, very spontaneous moment. The president was challenged to empty a bottle and he did so in a few seconds.
‘After, he was copiously sprayed by the players who naturally after so much (match) tension, let off steam’.
But Sandrine Rousseau, an MP for the Greens party, shared the footage on Twitter and said: ‘Toxic masculinity in political leadership in one image.’
‘A president who is sharing in the joy of 23 players and taking part in their traditions. That’s all,’ replied ruling party MP Jean-Rene Cazeneuve.
Macron is a keen sports fan and is well known for his locker-room visits to French sports teams – but it’s not always gone to plan.
In December, after Les Bleus lost the final of the football World Cup in Qatar, Macron made an appearance in the team’s changing room to deliver an emotional post-game pep talk.
But the players, many of whom did not look at Macron, did not appear to be impressed and only gave him a lukewarm round of applause once he had finished.
And toe-curling footage from the World Cup final showed Macron awkwardly trying to console French football star Kylian Mbappe on the pitch after France’s 4-2 penalty shootout loss to Argentina – only for the player to brush off the leader’s attempts.
During the World Cup in December, Macron interrupted an emotional moment between French football star Kylian Mbappe and Argentina’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez
During the awards ceremony at the World Cup in December, Macron, who was handing out medals to the dejected French players, tried again to hug Mbappe but he refused to make eye contact with the President and quickly moved away to shake another official’s hand
And Macron again tried to take centre-stage following Toulouse’s victory at the French Top 14 Rugby final – this time by downing a Corona beer.
Like most French presidents, Macron is more frequently seen with wine in his hand, and he once claimed he drank a glass at lunch and another in the evening.
He has also given fervent backing to France’s famed wine industry, even blocking attempts by public health authorities to promote the ‘Dry January’ concept – turning the first month of the year into four weeks of alcohol abstinence.
‘The president has a responsibility as a role model in terms of setting a healthy example for behaviour,’ Bernard Basset from the charity Association Addictions France told the BFM channel on Monday.
‘In this case, he’s associating sport, parties and the consumption of alcohol in a context of virile peer-pressure where everyone drinks a bit too much,’ he added.
‘It’s inappropriate,’ William Lowenstein, a doctor and addiction specialist, told the same channel. ‘You could do it, but not in front of the cameras.’
The images might help the ratings of a politician long criticised as out-of-touch with ordinary people, however.
His popularity slumped to a near-record low in March and April this year as he pushed through a highly unpopular hike in the retirement age and he was booed by sections of the crowd as he took to the pitch before the game on Saturday.
So low was his popularity that it was thought best he shake hands with the players of the French football Cup final in the corridor and not on the pitch.
Even though alcohol consumption has fallen in France in the last 50 years, around 49,000 deaths are caused by the intoxicant each year and excessive consumption is ‘one of principal causes of hospital admissions’, according to the health ministry.
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