France's President Emmanuel Macron has been accused of caving in to the wine lobby by failing to lend his weight to an alcohol-free "Dry January", reports the BBC.
Fifty specialists on addiction wrote an open letter this week, lamenting the lack of government support for the post-festivity no-drinks campaign.
"Our confidence in the government to carry out a coherent and determined policy against alcoholism is seriously compromised," the doctors wrote.
In their letter to Le Monde newspaper, the doctors said the Défi de janvier (January Challenge) had become a popular social fixture since it was introduced from the UK, but its success had been achieved in the teeth of government indifference.
Several ministers have indeed distanced themselves from the call for a teetotal month, saying they preferred to encourage moderation rather than an outright booze-fast.
Marc Fesneau, the agriculture minister, said the overall decline in French alcohol consumption - down 70% in the last half century, and down 7-10% last year alone - made the Dry January campaign irrelevant and intrusive.