Spain defender Pau Cubarsí has called for tolerance after the nation’s former Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, claimed that France “don’t have any French players.”
Rajoy’s comments, which he made in a column for Spanish newspaper El Debate, came ahead of Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal between the two nations.
Asked about the column by Catalan radio station RAC1, Cubarsí disputed the notion.
“If they play for the French national team then at the end of the day they are French, regardless of the colour of their skin, because ultimately we have to be tolerant with everyone,” the Barcelona defender said.
“The colour of their skin doesn’t matter because we are all people and we all deserve respect.”
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Rajoy’s comments have drawn severe criticism from political figures within Spain.
Óscar Puente, Spain’s Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, called Rajoy a “dim-witted, post-Francoist crook.”
Meanwhile, the French embassy in Madrid wrote: “Without wanting to get into a controversy, it is worth recalling the facts: All the players on the French national team are French. Of the 26 players, 23 were born in France. The three who were born abroad are French as well.”
Various government ministers in France have also accused Rajoy of racism.
Olivier Faure, leader of France’s Socialist Party, posted: “The French team consists only of French people. France is not an ethnic nation; it has no skin color or religion. It is a political nation united around the republican motto. Much to the dismay of the racist right.”
Naïma Moutchou, France’s Minister of the Overseas, called on the France Football Federation to take legal action against Rajoy.
“With every victory for Les Bleus, the same obsessions and racist insults resurface,” she said. “There are not slips. This is a methodical and normalised hatred of France and what it is.”
Rajoy’s comments come after Kylian Mbappé spoke out against racist comments made by Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla, calling her a “despicable woman unworthy of her office.”
