France should avoid voting for “extremes” in looming parliamentary elections, French basketball star Victor Wembanyama said Thursday, three days ahead of the first round of voting expected to be won by the far right.
“Of course, political choices are personal, but for me it is important to take a distance from extremes, which are not the direction to take for a country like ours,” the San Antonio Spurs phenomenon, who is expected to represent France at the Paris Olympics, told reporters.
Wembanyama joins fellow French sporting icon Kylian Mbappe and other members of the French national football team in speaking out before the parliamentary poll called by President Emmanuel Macron.
Mbappe and several teamates have also urged French voters to avoid “the extremes” in a tacit call not to vote for the anti-immigration far-right National Rally (RN) party on Sunday.
Polls show the RN could see emerge as the biggest parliamentary group and possibly at the head of the government for the first time in what would be a seismic change for France.
“Today we can all see that extremists are very close to winning power and we have the opportunity to choose the future of our country,” Mbappe said on June 16 from Germany where he is captaining France at the European Championships.
“The country needs to identify with the values of diversity and tolerance,” Mbappe added, saying he wanted “to be proud to wear the shirt of my country on July 7” — the date of the second and decisive round of the election.
His teammate Marcus Thuram called on the country “to fight every day to stop” the RN, while France and Real Madrid midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni added his voice to the clamour on Thursday.
“In everyday life, I hate extremes. I’m more for a politics of unity, that’s what represents France the best,” he told a press conference in Germany.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said Wednesday that the elections so close to the start of the Paris Olympics on July 26 risked “spoiling the party.”
A handful of French Olympic athletes have spoken about their fears for the country.
“I encourage votes against the National Rally which has values and principals which are not mine,” French volleyball star Earvin Ngapeth told AFP on Thursday.
“The France that I love is a France in which everyone mixes, like our team in the Olympics through which we provide happiness to French people,” the 33-year-old added.
