Dry February: 125,000 pledge to give up alcohol for a month

Should you happen to go down the pub this month, you may notice a lot of people drinking soda, orange juice, tonic water and other odd concoctions alien to this Land of Beer. The reason: a health campaign lasting all month.

The Tournée Minérale – the name is a play on the term tournée générale meaning “a round for everyone” – challenges citizens to give up alcohol for the entire month of February. It's an initiative of the Foundation against Cancer and the Flemish expertise centre for alcohol and other drugs, VAD.

“We were aiming for 15,000 participants,” said Steven De Bondt of VAD. At the start of the month there were 97,000 people signed up; as Flanders Today went to press, there were more than 125,500. According to the campaign, taking a break from alcohol will help you to sleep better, lose weight and have more energy as well as improve your skin.

Among those taking part are several Flemish ministers, including Hilde Crevits (education), Bart Tommelein (energy) and Liesbeth Homans (housing and equal opportunities). Minister-president Geert Bourgeois is “not a great drinker” in any case, his office said. As for culture minister Sven Gatz, former director of the Belgian Brewers Federation, he has chosen to support the drinks industry.

In Brussels, finance minister Guy Vanhengel said his whole family holds its own alcohol-free cure ahead of the holidays in November, while equal opportunities minister Bianca Debaets is not only taking part, but will continue to abstain all the way to Easter.