MADRID — A soccer-racism row involving a former prime minister has triggered renewed scrutiny of a perennial Spanish problem.
Mariano Rajoy, who governed Spain between 2011 and 2018 as leader of the conservative People’s Party, described the French team in a column he wrote for El Debate news site as a “very high-level squad. Of course, without Frenchmen,” in reference to the African heritage of some of the players.
The remarks sparked a fierce backlash from across the border ahead of tonight’s World Cup semifinal between Spain and France in Dallas.
On Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said, “France has no skin color. Any contrary claim stems from stupidity, racism or a combination of the two.”
Several other French politicians also criticized Rajoy, while the French soccer federation president, Philippe Diallo, wrote on social media that the remarks “carry an intolerable whiff of racism.”
Even the spokesperson for the far-right National Rally party, Julien Odoul, said: “Mr. Rajoy is a racist. Simply, his statements are scandalous, shameful, and regrettable. Everyone should condemn them.”
Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also took France’s side against his predecessor.
“There are those who still measure belonging by surname, place of birth, or skin color,” he wrote on social media. “Spain belongs to those who love it and work for it. Not to those who shame it with xenophobic comments. France, we will see you in the semi-final. May the best team win and may racism lose.”
Rajoy’s comments have reignited a debate that has dogged Spanish soccer for decades, even as it has morphed into a World Cup superpower. While high-profile cases involving stars like Samuel Eto’o and Vinícius Júnior have prompted tougher punishments and greater public condemnation, racist abuse from the stands — and broader questions about race, identity and belonging in Spain — have proved harder to eradicate. The latest controversy underscores how soccer reflects Spanish tensions that extend beyond the pitch.
In 2004, Spain fans made monkey noises at Black English players during a game in Real Madrid’s Bernabéu Stadium. Weeks earlier, Spain’s then-coach Luis Aragonés had been caught on microphone calling French star Thierry Henry a “black shit.”
In 2006, Barcelona’s Cameroonian forward Samuel Eto’o refused to continue playing a league game in Real Zaragoza’s La Romareda Stadium after home fans repeatedly directed monkey chants at him. Eto’o’s stand was seen as a reckoning for racism in Spanish soccer, although many believed the €9,000 fine handed to Real Zaragoza was laughable.
In the years since, there have been a number of similar incidents. Most notoriously, in 2023, Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinícius Júnior stopped playing and confronted Valencia fans who had been shouting racist abuse at him in their Mestalla Stadium. The controversy drew a show of outrage and solidarity for the player from the Brazilian government.
Racist abuse by fans had become increasingly common in the 1990s as Spanish soccer drew more players from abroad, including Africa and South America. At approximately the same time, Spain was also starting to see a large influx of immigrants, many of them from those same continents.
In a 2024 research paper on racism in Spanish soccer, the Funcas think tank, an independent institution focused on economic and social analysis, found that many radical fans were unhappy about the arrival of nonwhite players in La Liga.
“What is happening in football reflects what is happening, sooner or later, in broader society,” one fan was quoted as saying in the document.
“If there isn’t a solution, we’ll be invaded by a legion of foreigners and Spain will lose its identity,” the fan added.
Although Spanish authorities have clamped down on radical fan groups since the turn of the century, many of those sentiments have not gone away.
However, the Júnior episode shows that Spain’s soccer institutions take racist abuse more seriously than they did 20 years ago. Three Valencia fans were given eight-month jail sentences for their role in the Mestalla incident. Four fans of Real Madrid’s cross-town rival Atlético de Madrid were also given jail terms for hanging an effigy of Júnior from a bridge before a game.
The Rajoy racism case has surprised many because he is viewed as a moderate and yet his comments chime with the sentiments of the far right.
Political commentator Marc Bassets from the left-leaning El País warned in an op-ed that the kind of opinions voiced by Rajoy are too often tolerated or trivialized. He said the broader political context is significant, including the far-right Vox party’s introduction of a Spaniards-first “national priority” policy in regions where it governs alongside Rajoy’s PP.
“In times of ‘national priority’, the white noise of casual racism that can be seen in society risks becoming even more casual,” Bassets said.
At a press conference Monday, Spanish football star Lamine Yamal hit back at Rajoy.
“If football has a purpose, it is to unite society, and there is no better example [of that] than us and France,” Yamal said, describing both national teams as models of integration.