Back in June, the French president celebrated the victory in the changing room of the winning team of the domestic league rugby final by downing a bottle of beer in one go. Seventeen seconds is what it took Emmanuel Macron to empty the bottle, as the players cheered him on.

The controversy it sparked wasn’t merely over whether this was a heartfelt moment or a publicity stunt, but instead over the fact that Macron consumed alcohol. “He trivialises situations that encourage drinking”, Bernard Basset from Association Addictions France told BFMTV after the fact.

Continue reading in The Brussels Times.