The French opposition has criticized as «inappropriate» and an «international embarrassment» the gestures of support and consolation by French President Emmanuel Macron, who went down to the field right after the end of the Qatar World Cup final to embrace the star player of the French national team, Kylian Mbappé.
The striker himself showed his discomfort and tried to walk away when the French president whispered a few words in his ear, hugged his head and took his arm on the grass of the Lusail Stadium, the scene of the final that Argentina had just beaten France on penalties. He later hugged Mbappé again during the trophy presentation.
«International shame,» posted on Twitter on Sunday the deputy of La France Insoumise Danièle Obono, while Socialist leader Olivier Faure called it «inappropriate and uncomfortable,» as echoed by the French press on Monday.
Obono has highlighted Mbappé’s «world class» and compared Macron to Michael Scott, the protagonist of the series ‘The Office’, in which Steve Carrell plays the head of an office with an outsized ego and who desperately seeks the love and recognition of his subordinates.
In the opinion of MP Carlos Martens Bilongo «in the picture there are two number 10s». «Kylian Mbappé, number 10 and three goals in the final. Emmanuel Macron, 10 uses of (Article) 49.3 in the National Assembly» to approve public budgets without a parliamentary vote, the last one last Thursday. «Emmanuel Macron, world champion of shame,» noted environmentalist Benjamin Lucas on Twitter.
«Don’t worry, Kylian. You can work until 65 and win many other World Cups,» posted for her part the MEP Manon Aubry in reference to the imminent pension reform.
The deputy of the far-right National Rally party Sébastien Chenu has also criticized Macron’s intervention. «It was a bit frightening to see him yesterday grabbing like a hook at Mbappé,» Chenu said Monday on LCI television.
Macron himself had called for «not politicizing sport» in response to the controversy over protests about the questionable human rights record of the host country, Qatar.
The French press has recalled that Jacques Chirac achieved a 20-point increase in popularity after France’s first World Cup victory in 1998.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
