Why are Mbappe and team-mates speaking out on French elections?

Even before his injury-curtailed role in France’s opening 1-0 win over Austria at Euro 2024, Kylian Mbappe had hit the headlines for speaking out about the forthcoming French elections.

“Extremes are at the gates of power,” the France captain warned during his pre-match press conference, adding: “I don’t want to represent a country that doesn’t correspond to my values or our values.”

French President Emmanuel Macron called a snap parliamentary election after Marine le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) claimed victory in France’s European elections earlier this month.

There will be a first round of voting on 30 June, with a second round to follow on 7 July.

Mbappe’s comments have prompted lively debate in France about the extent to which professional footballers should get involved in politics.

He is not alone in the France squad in having broached the subject in recent days. Ousmane Dembele, Olivier Giroud and Benjamin Pavard had all encouraged their compatriots to vote in the elections, before Marcus Thuram went a step further by explicitly urging the people of France to prevent RN from gaining power.

“The situation is very, very serious,” the Inter Milan striker said. “It’s the sad reality of our society today.

“As a citizen, whether that’s you or me, we all need to fight every day so that this doesn’t happen and RN doesn’t succeed.”

The French Football Federation subsequently released a statement clarifying that, although players were permitted to express themselves freely, as an organisation it was politically neutral.

Mbappe carefully avoided mentioning any political parties by name, but said he agreed with what Thuram had said.

“I share the same values as Marcus,” Mbappe said when he addressed journalists on Sunday. “I’m talking about the values of tolerance, diversity and respect. Of course I’m with him.”

Thuram’s intervention was unusual, for a French footballer, but not unexpected. His father, former France right-back Lilian Thuram, is a renowned anti-racism advocate and named him after the Jamaican civil rights activist Marcus Garvey. Thuram Jnr has spoken out to denounce discrimination in the past.

Thuram and Mbappe have encouraged French people to vote in the upcoming election

Mbappe’s comments were more out of character. Although he has links to the socialist former mayor of his hometown of Bondy, Sylvine Thomassin - who is close friends with his mother, Fayza Lamari - he had never previously given an indication of his political leanings.

The 25-year-old superstar, who signed for Real Madrid shortly before the European Championship began, has long been courted by the French political establishment because of his huge national popularity and confident communication style.

Macron first invited him to a diplomatic lunch at the Elysee Palace in February 2018, when Mbappe was only 19.

More recently, Macron helped persuade Mbappe to stay in France when he was considering leaving Paris St-Germain in 2022.

Macron has also put pressure on Real Madrid to reverse their decision to ban their players – and therefore Mbappe – from competing in the football tournament at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.

Mbappe attended another dinner at the Elysee Palace in February this year, which was staged in honour of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim. Macron has reportedly been trying to encourage Qatar, which has owned PSG since 2011, to use its broadcasting company BeIn Sports to break a deadlock in negotiations over the rights to televise matches in France’s Ligue 1 championship from next season.

National Rally criticised Mbappe for his comments about the elections. “I don’t expect people who are quite disconnected from reality to be lecturing the people of France,” said the party’s vice-president Sebastien Chenu.

President Macron (centre) visited the France squad before their departure to the Euros

Historically, French footballers have been reluctant to speak out about politics. But Zinedine Zidane, Mbappe’s predecessor as figurehead of Les Bleus, made a similar intervention in April 2002 when he urged people not to vote for Jean-Marie le Pen – Marine’s father and founder of RN – in the presidential election.

Young voters, who Mbappe specifically addressed in his message, are a key target for the parties contesting the French elections. RN’s 28-year-old president Jordan Bardella is a prolific TikTok user and his anti-immigration party garnered 25% of the votes of 18-24 year olds in the recent European polls.

So could Mbappe and Thuram’s interventions shift the political dial?

“The discussion around this could possibly impact the election in the sense that it could mobilise younger voters, who maybe weren’t thinking of voting or who didn’t even know there was an election,” says Philippe Marliere, who is a professor of French and European politics at University College London.

“There’s always high abstention among young voters in France, particularly those from the banlieues [urban suburbs] and from ethnic minority backgrounds. Mbappe and Thuram both come from the suburbs and they are both from ethnic minorities. Their warning will probably fail to impact the white, working-class, unemployed [voters] who support Marine le Pen. But for young people from the suburbs who weren’t thinking about voting, it could be a wake-up call.”