France’s prodigal forward is a political football for far-right fans

When France played against West Germany in the 1982 World Cup semi-final in Seville, many French fans believed that the Germans were more than just opponents: they were descendants of wartime enemies. The flying kick of German goalkeeper Tony Schumacher hospitalized the Frenchman Patrick Batiston. France suffered a terrible defeat in the penalty shootout and evoked traumatic memories.

But when France played the first Euro 2020 match with Germany in Munich on Tuesday, some French fans chose a different enemy: their own center Karim Benzema.

The French far right sees him as the incarnation of France suburbs, Mainly poor immigrant suburbs, where France stores the lowest caste.This suburbs Has replaced Germany as the birthplace of mainstream French violent attacks. The French world champion has once again become the target of a Trump-style race-centric culture war.

In 2015, Benzema Expelled After being accused of helping a friend blackmail a French international, the team removed the so-called “la sextape” from the team-the case will start in October.At the time, the far-right leader Marina Le Pen Lead the charge: “Kareem Benzema shouldn’t have been on the French team. I think he is a man who has repeatedly expressed contempt for France.” Now, after nearly six years in the doghouse, he is called back. Blues.

Benzema is a tailor-made target for the extreme right. He is of Algerian descent, grew up in a suburb outside Lyon, and then became a multi-millionaire in Real Madrid.He used to call Algeria “my country”.

Just after the “sextape” story broke out, in November 2015, jihadist terrorists killed 130 people at Bataclan Concert Hall, the Stade de France, and cafes and restaurants in Paris, which triggered the French attack on young immigrant men. Worry.Eight days after the attack, Benzema Shoot After playing the Marseillaise, spitting everywhere-he insisted that it was unintentional.

In many countries, the national football team is considered to be the flesh and blood of the country. Some French people have never accepted that this national symbol should be predominantly non-white.

In 1999, the French National Human Rights Consultative Committee Annual Survey of Racist Attitudes: Is it “the French football team has too many foreign players?” The year before, “foreign players” made France win the world championship. However, 31% of respondents fully or mostly agreed with the statement. When Marina Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie complained that “they let the players come from abroad and baptize the French team”, he knew exactly what he was doing.

dissatisfied Blues It will reach its peak during the 2010 World Cup, when the players quarreled with the coach and went on strike halfway through the game.A few months later, officials of the French Football Association, including the then head coach Laurent Blanc, discussed Reduce the number of black players At the National Youth Training Center. year 2013, Opinion survey of consultant BVA Found that 82% of French Blues.

In 2018, a clean non-white team played without Benzema and resumed Blues‘Won the popularity of the World Cup.According to a poll by Odoxa, the most popular football player in France today is Kylian Mbappé, Parisian commuter Cameroonian and Algerian descent. He told me, “I always feel like I am French. I don’t give up my origin because they are part of me, but I never feel like I am here or not at home.”

Players in 2018 often expressed this sense of belonging, and they opposed the jokes of American and South African comedians Trevor Noah says “Africa won the World Cup”There is no doubt that the players are sincere, but they also know that they cannot risk taking a stand that supports blacks or opposes French racism.

The attack on Benzema reminded them of this. Stéphane Ravier, a senator from the Rassemblement National (RN) party in Le Pen, called the striker “French on paperMost of the far-right supporters opposed Benzema’s recall, saying Poll expert Ifop. RN opened up another front in the culture war, the party’s vice chairman Jordan Badra complained that a rapper was selected as the official song of the team for the 2020 European Cup.Badra called it a surrender To “scum“(“Scum”)-a long-term pronoun for non-white young people commuter.

France is the betting company’s favorite to boost the euro. However, even if they win, they will not be able to bridge the country’s differences. This is exactly what many people hoped for after winning in 1998.Demographer Michèle Tribalat says Then, the multicultural team “does more for integration than years of political will.” Events since then show that this is not the case. The French team is not a hammer, nor a tool that can transform France. On the contrary, it is a mirror of the country’s view of itself.