"We're crushing smokers": Didier Giraud's outburst against the ban on smoking on terraces

Last year's government priority, the fight against smoking , which causes 75,000 deaths and costs €156 billion a year, planned to generalize smoke-free public spaces... but in the absence of implementing decrees, they only see the light of day locally at the discretion of mayors. The National Tobacco Control Program (PNLT), launched in 2023, thus intended to expand smoke-free spaces.

But these spaces are making little progress, and the Minister of Health responsible for access to sound, Yannick Neuder , does not seem to want to move in this direction. Questioned last February on Sud Radio about the need to ban smoking on terraces, the cardiologist by profession declared that he was "neither for nor against," adding that "measures that are acceptable, compatible with everyone" were needed, before concluding: "Let's stop bothering the French."

These remarks were subsequently described as "unworthy of a cardiologist, and even more so of a Minister of Health" by the National Committee Against Tobacco (CNCT).

For her part, the Minister of Labour, Health, Solidarity and Family , Catherine Vautrin, said at the same time on RMC that she was not opposed to tightening smoking bans , replying "why not" for café and restaurant terraces.

"Today, smokers are regressive in society, and we're finally crushing them," complains farmer Didier Giraud on the set of Les Grandes Gueules . "When I was at the Jeunes agricoles, there were 12 of us in a room, everyone smoked except one, and we didn't ask his opinion, and that didn't bother me," he says, believing that we've moved from the tyranny of smokers to that of non-smokers.

"I'm not a smoker, but I'm much more bothered by the smell of blackcurrant and raspberry vaporizers," adds the cattle farmer.

"I worked with an office neighbor who smoked, and it never bothered me," adds Emmanuel de Villiers, who advocates for "the freedom to smoke."

"Continue to promote death, burnt-out lungs, and throat cancer," rages a very angry Joëlle Dago-Serry. "Passive smoking is not very harmful," Emmanuel de Villiers assures her.

Yet passive exposure to tobacco smoke causes between 3,000 and 5,000 deaths each year in France. Children are highly susceptible, and their risk of respiratory infections, ear infections, and asthma increases. For infants, the risk of sudden death is doubled.

Tobacco costs French society 156 billion euros per year (lost lives, quality of life and productivity, public spending on prevention, repression, care, etc.) and alcohol 102 billion, according to the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Trends (OFDT).