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French football captain Kylian Mbappé said Thursday it was “urgent” that people vote in France’s election this weekend, calling the first-round results “catastrophic.”
“More than ever, it’s time to vote. It’s really urgent,” Mbappé said during a press conference ahead of Les Bleus Friday Euro 2024 quarterfinal against Portugal.
“We can’t leave our country in the hands of these people,” he added. “We hope … that everyone will mobilize and vote for the right side.”
Before the first round, Mbappé described the legislative elections as a “crucial moment,” calling on people to “vote against extremists that want to divide the country.”
Last Sunday, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s far-right National Rally and its allies finished in the lead in the election’s first round with more than 31 percent of the vote. They are now hoping to obtain a majority in parliament and form a government.
Other players on the French national squad have also vocally opposed the far right. FC Barcelona defender Jules Koundé called the National Rally “a party founded on hatred of others, misinformation, and whose words are designed to discriminate and divide us.”
Liverpool and France center-back Ibrahima Konaté said he was “worried” by the political situation in his home country, adding that he regrets discrimination against Muslims and immigrants.
“My parents have [had] jobs as cleaning ladies, binmen, with impossible working hours, and when I see that we don’t highlight these kinds of people who have given their health for France, it saddens me,” Konaté said.
While the French Football Federation has stated it would remain neutral and has asked that politicians not use the French team’s image for their own purposes, its president, Philippe Diallo, told Ouest-France he had been “touched” by Konaté, himself a descendant of immigrants.
“The general context is unsettling, of course. Normally, all we’d be talking about is the Euro and the French team’s performance,” he said.
On the other hand, England’s John Stones said his team’s camp had been a “politics-free zone” despite Thursday’s general election in the U.K.
