If Mariano Rajoy intended to make a joke, it was bad. And if he said it seriously, it was worse. The fact is that the comment, published in the newspaper El Debate, by the former president of the Spanish Government about the French players of the national team who will face the Spanish team tomorrow could not have been more unfortunate.
The French Embassy in Spain reacted immediately in a post on X emphasizing that “all members of the French national team are French.” In fact, the Embassy reminds that 23 of the 26 players that make up the team were born in France and that the other three are also French.
There is not a single politician in France who has not condemned the opinion expressed by the former Spanish president as “racist,” while in Spain only the official stance of the Popular Party has attempted to justify that opinion, claiming it had a “sarcastic” tone.
A qualification that the French Foreign Minister, Jean Nöel Barrot, does not share while attributing Rajoy’s article to “stupidity, mediocrity, and racism.”