The far right may be on the verge of power, but it will first have to contend with an opponent that might be more formidable than France’s beleaguered mainstream politicians: the national soccer team.
Stars of the country’s iconic Les Bleus have sought to bolster the defenses of the Fifth Republic, speaking out to urge the public to vote in a crucial snap election campaign that is taking place alongside the men’s European Championship this summer.
Winner of the 2018 Word Cup, France is considered one of the top contenders to win the tournament that kicked off in Germany last week, but its players have their eyes on what’s happening off the field too, with tensions high at home ahead of a parliamentary vote that could usher in unprecedented political change.
“The extremes are at the gates of power,” captain and star forward Kylian Mbappe said in a news conference on the eve of France’s opening game against Austria on Monday.
Mbappe, 25, appealed to the younger generation of voters, saying the county was at a “crucial” moment.
“I don’t want to represent a country that doesn’t correspond to my values, or our values,” said Mbappe.
The comments are a reflection of the growing concern among many in the country ahead of the votes on June 30 and July 7, which were called by President Emmanuel Macron in a surprise move after the far right surged in European parliamentary elections.
The campaign, which is taking place just as the country would have been focused on the European tournament and the upcoming Paris Olympics, has plunged France into political turmoil.
Opinion polls suggest the far-right, anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party could come out on top for the first time in the country’s history.
Mbappe was not the only French player speaking out.
His teammate Marcus Thuram, the son of legendary French soccer player and anti-racism advocate Lilian Thuram, was even more direct. He called last week for French voters to “fight daily” to prevent the party from gaining power.
French winger Ousmane Dembélé last week also urged his compatriots to mobilize to vote, saying “the alarm bell” has been sounded.
“Generally speaking, it’s been very rare for French soccer players to speak out in this way,” said Tom Williams, a French soccer expert and the author of “Va-Va-Voom: The Modern History of French Football.”
“I think particularly the fact that Marcus Thuram specifically encouraged people not to vote for RN, that’s pretty unique in the recent history of French football,” said Williams.
The team is often upheld as a symbol of multiculturalism in France, boasting players who are Black, Arab or Muslim, and often come from former French colonies in the Caribbean and Africa.
Mbappe is one of them: He was born in the Paris suburbs, but his father hails from Cameroon and his mother from Algeria.
The team that won the country’s first World Cup trophy in 1998 was celebrated as a model of diversity and unity, and went down in history as the “rainbow team,” with players drawn from across the French diaspora, Williams said. It became “a symbol of what France might look like if people could overlook their differences,” he added.
Given that image, the team is often attacked by the far right, which questions how French the team’s nonwhite players are and targets nonwhite players who don’t sing every word of the national anthem, said professor Rainbow Murray, an expert in French politics at Queen Mary University of London.
The players’ comments sparked backlash from the party’s young figurehead. Jordan Bardella criticized Mbappe on Tuesday as he urged “respect” for everyone’s vote and appeared to take a dig at the star’s privileged position.
“When you’re lucky enough to have a very, very big salary, when you are a multimillionaire ... then I’m a little embarrassed to see these athletes ... give lessons to people who can no longer make ends meet,” Bardella said.
Party spokesperson Julien Odoul also responded to Thuram’s comments on X, saying he was fed up with “these privileged lesson-givers.”
But the French team is hugely popular with the French public, especially when it does well, Murray said. Players like Mbappe and Thuram are “aware of their voice and try to use it to defend the country against a party widely recognized as racist and xenophobic,” she added.
The French soccer federation defended the players’ right to express themselves freely but also called for the national team’s “neutrality” to be respected, saying the players should not be pressured or used for political purposes.
France plays again later Friday, against the Netherlands. Mbappe, who broke his nose in Monday’s game, looks set to play after returning to training in a protective mask adorned with the red, white and blue of the French tricolor.
