A column by former Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy asserting that France’s national football team fields “a top-level squad, but without Frenchmen” has ignited a diplomatic and political firestorm days before the two countries meet in a World Cup semi-final. The remark, published in the Spanish online outlet El Debate, prompted immediate condemnation from senior French ministers, who described it as “absolutely unacceptable” and evidence of “systematic and normalised hatred” toward France. The French embassy in Madrid issued a factual rebuttal, noting that 23 of the 26 players in the squad were born in France and the remaining three hold French citizenship.

Viewed from Paris, the reaction cut across party lines. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told BFMTV the statement “in no way reflects what France is,” while Overseas Territories Minister Naïma Moutchou called on the French Football Federation to pursue legal action. Anti-discrimination minister Aurore Bergé denounced “repeated racist outbursts,” and Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure insisted that “France is not an ethnic nation; it has no skin colour or religion.” Communist leader Fabien Roussel linked Rajoy’s words to earlier racist insults directed at captain Kylian Mbappé by a Paraguayan senator, framing both as part of a pattern of crude provocations against the French team.

In Madrid, the fallout exposed a sharp domestic political divide. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a Socialist, wrote on X that “there are those who still measure belonging by surname, place of birth or skin colour,” adding that “Spain belongs to those who love it and work for it, not to those who shame it with xenophobic statements.” Transport Minister Óscar Puente called Rajoy a “post-Francoist blockhead.” Rajoy, who led a conservative government from 2011 to 2018, responded through aides that he would not “stoop to the level of certain members of the Spanish government” and considered the phrase a minor matter magnified by the reaction.

The controversy revives a recurrent French debate over national identity and immigration, dating back to the multi-ethnic 1998 World Cup-winning side that the far right then dismissed as not truly French. It also follows a similar incident in which a Paraguayan senator made racist remarks about Mbappé, prompting a formal investigation in France. The semi-final in Dallas on Tuesday evening will now unfold against a backdrop of heightened diplomatic sensitivity, with both football federations under pressure to address the broader climate of racist abuse targeting players of immigrant background.