The Blues have once again made us proud. This extraordinary collective epic was hailed throughout France. In some cities even more so: in Bondy, Mâcon, Maubeuge, Vernon for example, the course of the French team has undoubtedly taken on a very particular intensity. Because in these corners of France, a name, a face and a number alone embody the team: those of the child of the city who, after growing up there and doing his first dribbles, realized his childhood dream. by wearing our jersey at a World Cup. Not enough for Eric Zemmour, for whom this French team would not look like the country.
While France spent December supporting the Blues, it was on another color that its attention focused: that of the players of the selection. Already in 2021, in his last book, he called the number of black players in the national team “taboo”. Last week, he reiterated these remarks in the media, refusing to put on the same level the presence in the team of “eight, nine players of African origin, of black color” and that of “Kopa son of Polish immigrants or Platini son of Italian immigrants”. Once again, Zemmour holds there an abject and deliberately racist speech. Skin color, continent, country, so many cleverly mixed notions with the sole aim of maintaining hatred and dividing a French society that is nevertheless proud of the course of its players. Unacceptable comments that we should condemn a thousand times more strongly than we have done.
The extreme right is customary of the fact. Every two years, on the occasion of one of the two major tournaments of the football planet, the same refrain resurfaces. Already in 1996, the Euro was an opportunity for Le Pen to declare “artificial that we bring in players from abroad by baptizing them the France team”. A quarter of a century later, the far right has not changed and reminds us that its values are far removed from those of sport. Rather than praising self-transcendence, she prefers to send individuals back to their origins. Rather than betting on national cohesion around the Blues, she prefers to feed divisions and fractures.
Despicable ideas but heavy with consequence
By distilling such venom, the extreme right is actually doing a double blow. Not only does it stigmatize players and, through them, part of the French, but it also makes people talk about it. The attachment of our people to the national team and the popular jubilation which seizes the country around football serve as a sounding board to convey its ideas. Despicable ideas but which have serious consequences. His remarks legitimize and encourage the violent actions of the most extreme groups. If the outcome of the France-Morocco match was punctuated by unacceptable incidents, the actions committed by these circles in Lyon and Paris are part of it.
For many years, I have defended an uninhibited right. A line that names the problems and offers solutions. A line that says it all. A completely watertight right and diametrically opposed to an extreme right which, for its part, says anything. Because make no mistake about it! The problem is certainly not the skin texture of our players who proudly wear only one color, blue. The problem is having to deploy 14,000 police and gendarmes on a match day so that the popular celebration is not spoiled by individuals who do not support any particular team, except that of disorder and violence.
Why devote this page to comments that do not deserve to be? Well, because on the right, several officials maintain the same ambiguity over and over again! At a time when supporters of a union of the right and the far right inevitably resurface after the appointment of a new president among the LRs, Zemmour’s statements remind us of the true face of the far right and its positioning outside the republican pact and the universalist values of our country. This clarification calls for a second: that of the right of government. An unqualified condemnation is called for. It is urgent to cut the bridges: as on the pitch, there are lines that we are never allowed to cross under penalty of immediate exclusion.