Former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has been condemned by European political leaders after writing in a newspaper column that the French national football team does not have any French players.
The commentary, published Friday in the online newspaper El Debate, sparked immediate backlash across Spain and France.
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Rajoy wrote that while France has a top-level squad and is ranked No. 1 in the FIFA rankings, "they don't have any French players."
Current Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez directly countered the remarks on social media, emphasizing that national identity should not be defined by race or heritage.
"There are those who still measure belonging by surname, place of birth, or skin colour," Sánchez wrote.
"Others measure it by our roots in a country and our will to contribute to it."
He concluded: "France, we'll see you in the semi-finals. May the best team win and may racism lose."
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez rejected Rajoy's characterization during a television broadcast on Sunday, calling it "completely unacceptable."
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"That's completely not what France is about," Nuñez said. "France is a country of diversity where everyone can thrive and find their place."
French Socialist Party Leader Olivier Faure described France as a political nation rather than an ethnic one.
"France is not an ethnic nation; it has no skin colour or religion," Faure wrote on social media.
"It is a political nation united around the republican motto – much to the chagrin of the racist right."
French Communist Party Leader Fabien Roussel compared Rajoy's statements to a separate controversy involving a Paraguayan politician targeting Kylian Mbappé.
"They cannot help but spew filthy racism in an attempt to annoy our beautiful French team," Roussel said.
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France's Minister for Overseas Territories, Naïma Moutchou, noted that such insults routinely target the national team during major football tournaments.
