European football championships|The French attacking star appealed to the citizens so that the far right would not take power in the country.
French striker star Marcus Thuram invites fellow citizens to a “daily struggle” so that the nationalist party does not take power in the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections.
Thuram spoke about the topic at the European Championship press conference in Germany on Saturday. Two days earlier, his teammate Ousmane Dembélé had urged people to vote for the president Emmanuel Macron in the unexpectedly organized elections.
“I think the situation is sad. It is very serious,” Thuram said APnews by.
President ordered early parliamentary elections after the far-right National Alliance won the European elections with an overwhelming 32 percent of support last weekend.
Macron’s own party came in second with a much smaller 15 percent vote share. With the election result, the French are forced to decide what they want from the political leadership. The first round of the new elections will be held on June 30th and the second round on July 7th.
Thuram heard about the election after Sunday’s friendly against Canada.
“We were all shocked in the dressing room. That is the sad reality of our society today. As Ousmane said, we must urge everyone to go and vote. We all have to fight every day so that this does not happen and that the National Coalition does not succeed.”
“There is no doubt that everyone thinks like me in the French national team.”
Thuram also challenges people to think about the situation.
“It is not enough to say that you have to go and vote. We have to explain how we got to where we are.”
Also Marcus’ father Lilian Thuram, the 1998 and 2006 world champion, is known for his strong political positions. He talked about racism of The Guardian in an interview in 2021.
“Racism has always been a hoax, a political construct,” he stated at the time.
Lilian Thuram, who played a record 142 games for the French national team and represented Parma, Juventus and Barcelona, among others, founded a foundation in 2008 whose goal is to educate people to get rid of racism.
He has also campaigned against sexism and homophobia, advised the French government on issues related to social integration and acted as a UNICEF ambassador.
France will open their Euro campaign against Austria on Monday. It will later face the Netherlands and Poland in Group D.
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