A few weeks ago we were celebrating Mariano Rajoy's return to the genre of opinion journalism with his columns full of teachings usually forbidden to the uninitiated, as when he wrote: “In football, what really matters is to score more goals than the opponent. If you don't, you lose. Or, in the best of cases, you draw.” The fact is that, even after having played the role of modern Prometheus and bringing us fire with these revelations, he has persisted in his illuminating task and, speaking of the French team that the Spanish selection must face, he said it had “a squad of the highest level; yes, without Frenchmen.” The diplomatic incident has been instantaneous and several Gallic authorities have had to remind Don Mariano that not only are all the players on the team French, because this condition, fortunately, is not determined by a specific skin tone, but that of the 26 players called up, 23 were born in French territory. And the other three, even if they were born abroad, are also French, because, as the leader of the French socialists reminded him, French nationality has to do with adherence to the Republican project.
If Rajoy were Catalan and Catalan-speaking – it’s a lot to assume, but for now it’s free, so we’ll abuse it – he would be one of those who addresses anyone with oriental or African racial features in Spanish, without being aware of the inherent racism that doing so entails. To say that the players are not French because most of them have dark skin can only be explained by two hypotheses: supreme ignorance, completely disconnected from what the world is in the 21st century, or racist bad faith. Or as he himself might write in one of his brilliant columns: “It is not ruled out that M. Rajoy, or Mariano R., could have both things converge. In the end, two and two are four. And if it goes in, it’s a goal.”
