{"id":538121,"date":"2026-07-12T19:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T19:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/538121\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T19:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T19:16:10","slug":"former-spanish-pm-accused-of-racism-in-remarks-about-french-football-team-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/538121\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Spanish PM accused of racism in remarks about French football team | Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former Spanish conservative prime minister Mariano Rajoy<\/a> is facing growing accusations of racism after writing in a World Cup newspaper column that the French national team \u201cdoes not have any French players\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rajoy, who was in office from 2011 to 2018, pondered Spain\u2019s looming semi-final showdown with France<\/a> in an article for the online newspaper El Debate on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s worth remembering that France has been a two-time world champion and was a finalist in the last World Cup,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. \u201cThey\u2019ve won every match they\u2019ve played in this World Cup and are currently ranked No 1 in the Fifa rankings. They also have a top-level squad. That said, they don\u2019t have any French players. And they\u2019re playing very well. They\u2019ll be a formidable opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rajoy\u2019s remarks, which have drawn comparisons to a Paraguayan senator\u2019s recent racist social media attack on Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a>, elicited a scathing response from Spain\u2019s current prime minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are those who still measure belonging by surname, place of birth, or skin colour,\u201d Pedro S\u00e1nchez wrote in a post on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOthers measure it by our roots in a country and our will to contribute to it. Playing soccer. Caring for our elders. Or opening businesses. Spain<\/a> belongs to those who love it and work for it. Not to those who shame it with xenophobic statements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rajoy\u2019s words provoked a furious response in France.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s completely unacceptable,\u201d France\u2019s interior minister, Laurent Nu\u00f1ez, told the French channel BFMTV on Sunday. \u201cThat\u2019s completely not what France is about. France is a country of diversity where everyone can thrive and find their place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olivier Faure, the leader of the French Socialist party, said the French national team was composed only of French citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrance is not an ethnic nation; it has no skin colour or religion,\u201d he added in a post on X<\/a>. \u201cIt is a political nation united around the republican motto \u2013 much to the chagrin of the racist right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fabien Roussel, the leader of the French Communist party, condemned Rajoy and said his words were reminiscent of the racist tirade from the Paraguayan senator, Celeste Amarilla, who called Mbapp\u00e9 a \u201ccolonised Cameroonian, desperately trying to \u2060pass himself off as French\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Roussel said: \u201cThey cannot help but spew filthy racism in an attempt to annoy our beautiful French team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others saw a familiar pattern. \u201cThe same racist obsessions and insults resurface every time [France] wins,\u201d said Na\u00efma Moutchou<\/a>, France\u2019s minister for overseas territories.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese aren\u2019t just \u2018slips of the tongue\u2019. It\u2019s a methodical and normalised hatred of France and what it represents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moutchou called on the French football federation, which has already filed a complaint with Paris prosecutors over Amarilla\u2019s remarks, to \u201cpursue all legal avenues\u201d.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez ended his post on X with a cordial wish: \u201cFrance, we\u2019ll see you in the semi-finals. May the best team win and may racism lose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Spanish conservative prime minister Mariano Rajoy is facing growing accusations of racism after writing in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-538121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}