Sport may have been banned for the umpteenth time from the presidential election, but its main representatives, rather passive until the first round, are now raising their voices a handful of days before the election between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. More than worried at the idea of seeing the leader of the National Rally take over the Elysée at the end of the week, the sector decided to meet in haste, via a joint initiative born of several federation leaders (judo, athletics) and the Agency for Education through Sport (Apels).
At the Judo Institute, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, leaders, city officials, associations and coaches from all walks of life followed one another on the platform erected in the middle of the tatami mats to fight the ideas of the far right, in front of an audience. of approximately 300 personalities from the world of sport. “Brotherhood”, “respect for others”, “living together” : the same terms have been hammered at will as so many values specific to sport, opposed to those advocated by the extreme right.
Usually silent when it comes to talking politics, several athletes or ex-athletes were there to encourage the undecided to block. “We are all afraid to talk about politics, me first”,concedes the ex-founder Mehdi Baala, converted director of the French athletics teams. “Amazed and sad to have to be there tonight and to have to say ‘no to the far right'” he says he asked “a lot of athletes. Very few want to speak. But we are in a situation where fear has to be put aside,” assure Baala. “We are lucky to live in France. When I was a little suburbanite, at 15, my voice didn’t carry. Thanks to the sport, now she wears. We all need to mobilize. We are all affected by politics.”says the one who admits to having “fear for sport, for the success of JO 2024 which will be secondary, anecdotal: we are not talking only about sport but about daily life”.
Speech shared by the rugby players of Racing 92, convinced to come and testify through their teammate, the international Gaël Fickou. The recent winner of the VI Nations abounds: even if “It’s not easy to come to these kinds of places, to say what we feel, to position ourselves as sportsmen […], the situation is serious. It’s five years of our lives, it must be taken into account.
“How can we be heard if we don’t speak up?”
In the ball of testimonies, several speakers warned of the possible consequences for the world of sport if the RN ever came to power. “The far right is the end of sport, it’s human sorting, it’s stigma”certifies Jean-Philippe Acensi, president of Apels, for whom such a scenario would be “a tragedy for sports associations” .
Others, like the resident of the premises Larbi Benboudaoud – “the citizen, not the coach”–, extolled the benefits of sport, in this case judo, “often cited as an example because there are no barriers, no social borders with us because all strata are represented. We made sure to remove all religious and physical barriers… And it works, it works. Inevitably, when one embodies these values, one cannot accept the ideas of the extreme right. , loose the one who admits to turning into a political orator for the first time. Pointing to the fresco to the glory of the judo medalists in Tokyo, and the face of Luka Mkheidze, tanned in Japan: “What was the probability that a Georgian refugee would win an Olympic medal in Tokyo?”
“Sport is a real tool for socialization, pacification”,embraces Ryadh Sallem, 15 times French disabled swimming champion, plus three national titles in wheelchair basketball during his career. Nevertheless, he finds “Too bad we didn’t use sport more to avoid that. We have to be vigilant for the future, that we don’t just say to ourselves if Emmanuel Macron passes: “Phew, we had a narrow escape.”
Almost every time, the players in the sector did not fail to recall the absence of sport in the debates: reduced to a starving portion in Emmanuel Macron’s roadmap, the theme does not even appear in the program of Marine Le Pen. “We need to make our voices heard more often hammered the president of the Judo Federation, Stéphane Nomis, in the preamble. Sport is not apolitical. His athletics buddy, André Giraud, agrees: “From the moment the State entrusts us with a public service mission, yes, we do politics, he said. Our duty as leaders is to train true citizens.”He poses a question to the assembly: “We represent 0.3% [du budget de l’Etat]. How can we be heard if we don’t speak up?
“These people are recoverable”
The evening was part of a context of strong mobilization of the sports movement in recent days against far-right ideology. In a column published on April 12 in the Parisiansome fifty personalities from the sports world, including judoka Clarisse Agbégnénou, handball player Nikola Karabatic, ex-basketball player Tony Parker and ex-swimmer Laure Manaudou, called for a vote for the president-candidate, refusing “a far-right president. […] If we are fully aware of the difficulties that many French people are going through, we are convinced that voting for a party that would endanger republican values would be the worst remedy. then wrote the signatories of the text, also published on France Info.
Tuesday morning, another forum posted on the site of the Teamand initialed by a good part of the French oval, once again denounced the deadly ideology of the far right, a month after the death of the former Argentinian international Federico Martín Aramburú, shot dead in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the presumed perpetrators of the shots being affiliated with far-right movements. A chilling episode, convened many times on Tuesday evening to illustrate the ravages of extremist ideology: “Federico wanted to stand up to an inhuman action. It is not normal that this kind of event can take place. It’s important for us to stand up against that.” underlines Yannick Nyanga, sports director of Racing 92 and former international of the XV of France, among the signatories of the platform.
“Less pessimistic”than the others concerning the political evolution of the country, “maybe a little naive” the former glory of boxing Mahyar Monshipour, WBA world champion in super-bantamweight, estimates that the millions of fellow citizens “who voted and will vote again for Le Pen, are not racist, xenophobic. These people are recoverable. The Frenchman is not as stupid as that, I think he’s had enough.As if the election was already decided, and in the hope of rallying lost minds in the future, he warns: “Once President Macron is elected, the Prime Minister appointed, they will have to take these votes into account. [en faveur de Le Pen]. They never did.”