Albares demands Feijóo “disavow Rajoy” and Barrot denounces the former president’s “stupidity and racism”

Eduardo González Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares demanded on Monday that the leader of the People’s Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, “disavow” the words of former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, in which he stated that the neighboring country has a “top-level” national football team but “without French players.” He also contacted his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, to convey that “certainly, that is not the position of the Spanish Government.” In an article in the newspaper "El Debate" about the upcoming match between the Spanish and French national teams in the semifinals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Rajoy stated that the neighboring country "has a top-level squad, although without any French players." In response to these remarks, the French Embassy in Spain posted on social media this Sunday that, "without wishing to stir up controversy, it is worth remembering the facts: all the players on the French national team are French. Of the 26 players, 23 were born in France. The three who were born abroad are also French." "We have a very important semifinal tomorrow with an extraordinary Spanish team that we will all support," Albares declared in Brussels upon his arrival at the meeting of the European Union's Foreign Affairs Council. "We have a very important semifinal tomorrow with an extraordinary Spanish team that we will all support," Albares declared in Brussels upon his arrival at the meeting of the European Union's Foreign Affairs Council. “I am certain that our Spanish national football team will continue to bring us joy, but sport must also transmit values—values of tolerance, values of friendship, values of brotherhood—like those shared by Spain and France, two friendly, neighboring countries. Therefore, what former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy wrote is absolutely unacceptable,” he continued. “I want to reiterate our friendship with France and demand that Mr. Feijóo disavow Mariano Rajoy, a former Prime Minister from his party and a member of his party, and that the online publication that published that article retract the article and publish a retraction, making it clear that it absolutely does not share the views expressed in that article,” he warned. “I have immense respect for former Prime Ministers, but I also demand responsibility from them in their conduct and in what they say,” he added. “I want to make it absolutely clear that there is no place in Spain for any racist or xenophobic expressions,” he insisted. “Of course all the players on the French national team are French, no one in their right mind has any doubt about that, just as all the players who wear the Spanish national team jersey are Spanish,” he continued. “Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams are as Spanish as anyone,” and “I’m proud that they wear the colors of the Spanish national team,” he asserted. “Racism and xenophobia are serious illnesses, illnesses of the soul, and they always have two symptoms: stupidity and hatred. That’s the mix that leads to racism, and Spain has neither,” he declared. Regarding the possibility of classifying Rajoy’s words as a “hate crime” and the government taking legal action against the former president, Albares responded that “that’s not the Foreign Minister’s responsibility.” “I am not aware that he has proposed any action of that kind and I hope that things will take their course, which is to apologize, for Mr. Feijóo to disavow him and for the media outlet to publish a retraction,” he insisted. For now, the PP’s national spokesperson, Borja Sémper, has limited himself to saying that the former Prime Minister’s football columns are “sarcastic” and written “without ill intent.” Barrot Furthermore, the minister reported that he contacted Jean-Noël Barrot this Sunday to discuss the matter. “Yes, I contacted him and conveyed that, of course, this is not the position of the Spanish Government,” he clarified. Barrot himself told BFMTV that Rajoy’s words “are pathetic” and warned that “France has no skin color and any statement to the contrary is the result of stupidity, racism, or a combination of both.” Even the National Rally, the main far-right party in France led by Marine Le Pen, has accused Rajoy of being “racist” for his “scandalous, shameful, and regrettable” words, according to its spokesperson, MP Julien Odoul. According to Odoul, “the French project is based on three colors: blue, white, and red, regardless of one’s origin or religion.” Albares also spoke with his counterpart about the progress of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Spain and France, which was referred by the Senate to the Constitutional Court last week, once again at the behest of the People's Party. Both the controversy surrounding Rajoy and the deadlock over the Treaty coincide, in addition to the football match, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's visit to Paris to participate in the meeting of the Coalition of Volunteers and attend the military parade for Bastille Day. In this regard, the minister asked the People's Party on Monday for “a broader reflection.” “This week they are sabotaging the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with France with an absurd claim of unconstitutionality, which exists only in their minds,” while at the same time “making extremely dangerous and hurtful statements against the French national football team,” he denounced. “They are clearly positioning themselves as an anti-French party against France; that's in the north, but in the south they have long been an anti-Moroccan party, with openly belligerent positions toward this extraordinary period of friendship we have with Morocco; they are defaming another of our great friends and neighbors, Algeria, saying they are going to cut off our gas supply when everyone knows they are a reliable supplier,” and “they are trying to poison the relationship with a sister nation like Mexico,” he added. Therefore, he insisted, “I demand that Mr. Feijóo not only disavow Mariano Rajoy and make it clear that he does not share that position, but also, once and for all, that he stop trying to inflame, sabotage, and torpedo the extraordinary foreign policy that Spain currently has.” “They are absolutely incapable of governing: it’s one thing not to know languages, but it’s quite another not to understand where the interests and feelings of the Spanish people lie,” he added.

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