Anti-addiction groups in a froth over French candidate's beer video

A prominent contender in the race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron is facing accusations from anti-addiction groups of violating a law regulating the promotion of alcohol with a video inviting French voters to join him over a beer.

Former prime minister Gabriel Attal this week launched on social media what he called the "1,000 bistros" campaign, brandishing a half pint of beer in a traditional cafe.

"A presidential campaign is about big rallies, but I also want it to be about great moments like this -- a table, a drink, and simple, unpretentious conversation," he said in the clip against the background of traditional accordion music.

Attal, who served as France's youngest prime minister in 2024 and is still only 37, hopes the campaign will give him the edge in a field of candidates that is crowded even just within his own centrist sphere.

But the Addictions France association said that the video represented a "clear violation" of France's 1991 law regulating the consumption and promotion of tobacco and alcohol.

Noting that Attal's beer glass showed a prominent French beer brand, it warned his video "may encourage alcohol consumption" and thus be in violation of the law which restricts promotion of alcoholic drinks on TV and now also on social media.

"We see Gabriel Attal walking with a beer, sitting down with it, clinking glasses... The problem lies in associating alcohol with conviviality," said Mickael Naassila, president of the French Society of Alcohol Studies (SFA).

These are "not the right messages during an election period", he added.

The clip also raised hackles on the left, with hard-left France Unbowed lawmaker Antoine Leaument calling it a "disgrace" and noting that alcohol "is responsible for 49,000 deaths per year" in France.

But as he pressed his campaign for him and his team to visit 1,000 bars, bistros and cafes in the eight months left until polling day, Attal insisted he had done nothing wrong.

"The French art of living also encompasses our brewing and winemaking sectors, cider, and so on. Does having a drink mean you are promoting alcoholism? Of course not," he said in a bistro in the northern port of Saint-Malo.

An eager user of social media during his stint as premier, Attal will need all his tech savvy if he is to become France's next president.

Most polls indicated that Attal, who has sought to distance himself from Macron and was bitter over being forced out of office, is not even the leading candidate among centrists.

Fellow ex-premier Edouard Philippe currently has the best chance of beating the far-right's Marine Le Pen, but Attal has refused to give way even as commentators warn both may lose if they fail to unite.