Official French condemnation of "racism" by former Spanish Prime Minister
Paris (AFP) – Remarks made by former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who described the French national football team as a squad “without any Frenchmen,” sparked a wave of sharp criticism from ministers and party leaders who condemned the comments as “blatant racism” and “hate speech.”
The controversy centers on an article published in the newspaper El Debate, in which the former conservative People’s Party prime minister analyzed the French national team just days before its anticipated match against “La Roja” in the 2026 FIFA World Cup semifinals in North America.
Olivier Faure, leader of the French Socialist Party, responded sharply, stating: “The French national team consists solely of Frenchmen. France is not an ethnic nation, without race or religion. It is a political nation united around republican values. That is what upsets the racist right.”
For his part, Fabien Roussel, general secretary of the French Communist Party, said: “Yesterday it was a senator from Paraguay, and today it is the former Spanish prime minister. They cannot refrain from expressing blatant racism in an attempt to provoke our wonderful French national team.”
Several members of the French government also reacted to the issue.
Naima Moutchou, Minister of Overseas Territories from the Horizons party, said: “With every victory for the French national team, the same racist anxieties and insults resurface. These are not slips of the tongue, but systematic and familiar hatred toward France and what it represents,” calling on the French Football Federation to file “lawsuits.”
Meanwhile, Aurélie Filippetti, Minister for the Fight against Discrimination from the Renaissance party, criticized what she described as “repeated racist slippages,” adding: “The time has come for such behavior to stop, and for sport to remain sport—that is, a place where people are judged solely on their talent, not by any other criterion.”
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, in an interview with BFMTV, said that if the Spanish official’s statements were accurate, they were “absolutely unacceptable.”
The remarks by the former Spanish official, whose government fell in 2018 amid a scandal over illegal party financing, also drew reactions within Spain.
Óscar Puente, Spain’s Minister of Transport in the Socialist government, described Rajoy as a “post-Franco fool,” referring to the period after Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, and added that he had never been “moderate.”
The French Embassy in Madrid also responded via social media, stating: “All players on the French national team are French. Of the 26 players, 23 were born in France, and the other three born abroad are also French.”
