France's European Championship team celebrates "victory of the people"
"The fight continues", writes France's national soccer player Marcus Thuram on Instagram. He is not referring to the sports fight for the European Championship title. The striker and his teammates are relieved and happy about the election outcome, in which the Right suffered a setback.
The surprising result of the second round of the French parliamentary elections has brought relief to the players of the Tricolore team before the EURO semi-final against Spain. "Long live diversity, long live the Republic, long live France", wrote the former Bundesliga pro Marcus Thuram on Instagram.
He congratulated all those who had given an answer to the danger that had hung over "our beautiful country" France. Thuram ended his message with the words: "The fight continues." Thuram was among the players who had already clearly expressed their views on the political situation in France after the European elections.
The right-wing National Rally had received more than 31% of the votes, while Macron's party had only received about 15%. Macron then called for new elections in France. "The situation in France is sad, it is serious," Thuram had emphasized. "That is the sad reality of our society," Thuram said after the European elections.
"Congratulations to all the French"
According to preliminary calculations, the Left was leading in the second round of the parliamentary elections on Sunday. The National Rally was performing significantly worse than expected. It could only finish third behind Macron's center-ground.
"Victory of the people", wrote Thuram's teammate Aurélien Tchouameni at X, formerly Twitter. "Congratulations to all the French who have woken up so that this beautiful country, France, is not ruled by extremist right-wingers", wrote teammate Jules Koundé also at X. The relief was as great as the concern in the past few weeks had been.
The political debate has accompanied the French throughout the EURO, and captain Kylian Mbappé had taken clear positions against the Right on several occasions. In the semi-final on Tuesday in Munich (9 pm/ZDF and Magenta TV as well as in the ntv.de-Live Ticker), he meets with the team against Spain.
In the midst of the celebrations following the unexpected election results, French soccer star Kylian Mbappé expressed his support, stating, "Proud of my country France for making the right choice." During the EURO semi-final against Spain, Mbappé reiterated his stance, saying, "As a Franch player, I stand with France and its values, in solidarity with Marcus Thuram and all those who fought against extremism."
