Debate around the 80 Rafale sold in the United Arab Emirates, Christmas caught up by the fifth wave and democratizing wine: portrait of a Tiktokeur winegrower

Last year, it was no more than six at the table and Grandpa and Grandma in the kitchen. So this year, everyone hoped to gather around a log. But the Omicron variant is a game-changer and little by little the government is starting to prepare us: spending Christmas together is no longer a given, it is a goal.

So the government is considering new measures. A health defense council is scheduled for Monday.

Emmanuel Macron is traveling in the Gulf Countries until Saturday. He took the opportunity to announce the sale of 80 Rafale, the combat aircraft made in France, United Arab Emirates. Except that this contract, which delights the government, is not unanimous. Yannick Jadot thus declared that “France shames us when it arms authoritarian regimes which despise human rights and whose wealth has been built on fossil fuels”.

More broadly, it is the question of human rights, completely absent from Emmanuel Macron’s trip to these countries – the prince of Saudi Arabia is accused of having ordered the assassination of a journalist, Qatar of hiding the death of several hundred workers on the construction sites of the World Cup – which is the subject of debate, Christian Chesnot told us. He is the special envoy of franceinfo to Dubai.

The independent winegrowers’ fair is currently taking place in Paris. And the wine sector is facing a major challenge: reaching new audiences while the consumption of wine per inhabitant in France has been dropping steadily since the 1950s. A third of 18-24 year olds say they never drink wine, against 8% of those over 75.

Some professionals are trying to shatter the elitist image of wine. This is the case of Emile Coddens, a winegrower near Tours, who shares his daily life and his knowledge in a book, Wine can be shared!, published this fall by Editions des Equateurs, and on its Tiktok account which has 500,000 subscribers. “Le Quart d’Heure” went to meet him.

Guest: Christian Chesnot, journalist with the international editorial staff of Radio France, and Emile Coddens, winegrower tiktokeur

Find “Le Quart d’Heure” from Monday to Friday on franceinfo, on the application Radio France and all other podcast apps (Spotify, Apple podcasts, Podcast Addict, Deezer …).