A column by former Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy asserting that France’s football team plays “at the highest level, though without Frenchmen” triggered a cross-border political storm on Sunday, overshadowing the buildup to the World Cup semifinal between the two nations in Dallas, Texas. The comment, published in the Spanish media outlet El Debate, drew immediate condemnation from officials in both Paris and Madrid, with French ministers branding it “filthy racism” and “methodical hatred,” and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calling it an embarrassment to his country.

In a rejoinder on X, Sánchez, of the Socialist Party, wrote that some people still measure belonging by surname, birthplace or skin colour, while others view it as rootedness and the will to contribute. “Spain belongs to those who love it and work for it, not to those who shame it with xenophobic statements,” he said, adding: “May the best team win and may racism lose.” Transport Minister Óscar Puente, also a Socialist, called Rajoy a “post-Francoist idiot” and asserted that the former leader was never the moderate figure some believed. The French embassy in Madrid chimed in with a factual correction: all 26 players in the French squad are French, 23 of them born in France.

From Paris, the backlash was sharper. Overseas Minister Naïma Moutchou said such insults resurge after every French victory, describing them as “not slip-ups, but a methodical and trivialised hatred of France and what it represents,” and urged the French Football Federation to take legal action. Anti-Discrimination Minister Aurore Bergé denounced “repeated racist slips” and insisted sport should be judged on talent alone. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told BFMTV the remark was “absolutely unacceptable.” Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure stressed that France is not an ethnic nation but a political one united by republican values, and Communist leader Fabien Roussel tied the incident to a similar racist attack days earlier by a Paraguayan senator, calling both expressions of “filthy racism” aimed at provoking the French squad.

Rajoy, who headed a conservative People’s Party government from 2011 until 2018, when he was ousted in a no-confidence vote amid a party-financing scandal, has not responded to the criticism. The row lays bare enduring tensions over national identity and multiculturalism in European football, a familiar flashpoint for a French team whose diverse composition has frequently made it a target of racist abuse. While no formal complaint has been filed as of Monday, the call for litigation by a French minister signals potential legal escalation. The semifinal will be played on Tuesday evening.