Argentine President Javier Milei will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron at the ongoing Paris Olympics over the Argentine soccer team’s derogatory post-match chants about black French players.
Argentina and Chelsea star, Enzo Fernandez shared a video of himself and his teammates celebrating their Copa America victory in Miami earlier this month.
The footage shows triumphant Argentine players chanting a song considered racist toward French players of African heritage.
‘They play for France but their parents are from Angola,’ the refrain goes, with some transphobic slurs mixed in.
The French soccer federation has since filed a legal complaint over the ‘unacceptable racist and discriminatory remarks.’ Fernandez’s English club Chelsea started an internal disciplinary procedure.
‘Argentina is the enemy in France,’ was a headline Thursday in the Argentine newspaper Clarín, citing the deafening boos and jeers that greeted the Argentine national anthem in Paris.
Argentina’s conservative vice president, Victoria Villarruel, also defended Fernandez and the team, saying that Argentina would not tolerate criticism from a ‘colonialist’ country.
In a widely shared social media post, she insisted that Argentina was not a racist country because, unlike France, ‘We never had colonies or second-class citizens. We never imposed our way of life on anyone.’
‘Enough with faking indignation, hypocrites,’ she added.
Last week, Milei removed the undersecretary of sport, Julio Garro, from his post for requesting that team captain Lionel Messi apologize for the chants. ‘No government can tell the Argentine national team, world champion and two-time champion of Copa America, what to comment, what to think or what to do,’ Milei’s office said at the time.
The Argentine presidency said Milei will meet with Macron and other French officials at the Elysee Palace on Friday, with the president expected to attend the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony.
