Several dozen French sports personalities call in a column published Sunday (June 16, 2024) on the L’Equipe website to vote against the far right during the early legislative elections of June 30 and July 7. Among these personalities, athletes from Guadeloupe or Guyana.
“Today we are behind, on the verge of losing the match. But we still have a few days left to react“, they write in this column. “Let’s vote against the far right, which has just achieved a historic score in the European elections“, they add.
“We are well aware of the growing difficulties many face in making ends meet, anger at inequality, lack of commitment and fear for the future. But as professional athletes, coaches and decision-makers, we cannot resign ourselves to seeing the far right take power in our country.“, they continue.
The platform has been signed at this stage by more than 190 personalities, athletes, coaches or managers, including former athletes Marie-José Pérec and Monique Ewanje-Epée, sailors Isabelle Autissier and François Gabart, former footballer Vikash Dhorasoo or again the ex-rugbymen Serge Betsen and Fulgence Ouedraogo or Yannick Noah, the last Frenchman to win the Roland-Garros tournament.
Its authors believe that the extreme right “tramples respect“, which they erect as “one of the cornerstones of the sport“.
Sport, they emphasize, “showed us that despite our differences; skin color, religions, accents, cultures, sexual orientations, disabilities, genders, we are part of the same team, and that our diversity is a strength“.
“The far right, they continue, exploits these differences and manipulates our fears to divide us.“
“We have an extraordinary opportunity to show our country that we, athletes and players in this world, are calling for a more inclusive and democratic society. We can build a France where every individual, whatever their origin, is treated with dignity“, conclude the signatories, which also include the former boxer Brahim Asloum, the ex-tennis player Marion Bartoli, the walker Yohann Diniz, the Guadeloupean fencers Sarah Daninthe and Ysaora Thibus and the Guyanese swimmer Malia Metella.
