Source: Politics<\/p>\n
BERLIN \u2014 As the World Cup comes to a close, there\u2019s one group of politicians who\u2019ve remained unusually quiet about the fate of their own national teams: Europe\u2019s far-right party leaders.<\/p>\n
Top officials from France\u2019s National Rally, the Alternative for Germany, England\u2019s Reform UK and others faced complicated dynamics in deciding how to talk about the World Cup. The broad, socially acceptable form of patriotism inspired by international sporting events like the World Cup seems at first glance like an easy fit for parties whose core message includes a return to strong national pride.<\/p>\n
But in many of the countries where these parties are growing, increasingly diverse teams with immigrant backgrounds are at odds with the way these parties think about national identity \u2014 making it tougher for them to vocally support the home team without implicitly supporting the individual players who are part of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the right, for whom national identification and identity has always been more salient than for the center and the left, soccer fandom was a natural conduit to express its passion and commitment,\u201d said Andrei S. Markovits, a professor at the University of Michigan who studies the intersection of sports and nationalism. \u201cThis has become a tad more difficult when the players hail from multicultural backgrounds, many of which the right sees as inferior.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy learned the hard way how people react when someone points out those multicultural backgrounds: The center-right pol came under fire<\/a> for saying ahead of Spain\u2019s semifinal match against France that the French national team was \u201cwithout Frenchmen,\u201d a not-so-subtle dig at the African origins of many of the team\u2019s star players.)<\/p>\n \u201cIt would not be good in terms of their electoral strength for [far-right parties] to be critical of these teams,\u201d said Alan Bairner, a professor at England\u2019s Loughborough University who has researched sports and national identity. \u201cBut the fact that they might seem a bit lukewarm is in itself a telling thing.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s perhaps why criticism from far-right leaders has been directed not at their own teams, but at other teams \u2014 or at using the tournament to chime in with nationalist narratives that serve their own purposes.<\/p>\n Geert Wilders, leader of the Netherlands\u2019 far-right Freedom Party, posted an image of himself in a bright-orange suit<\/a> to cheer on the Dutch team in the early stages of the World Cup. It was a sharp contrast with his comments a day earlier, when he\u2019d reposted a picture<\/a> of members of the Moroccan squad praying on the field with an anti-Islam insult as the caption. (Several players of Dutch-Moroccan origin opted to play for Morocco, rather than the Netherlands this year.)<\/p>\n And after the Netherlands lost to Morocco in a penalty shootout late last month and post-game celebrations led to clashes<\/a> with police in The Hague, Wilders \u2014 long a vocal supporter of stricter immigration controls in Europe \u2014 used the occasion to call for the deportation<\/a> of all Moroccans involved in the clashes.<\/p>\n Reform UK\u2019s Nigel Farage, too, used England\u2019s semifinal match against Argentina on Wednesday to hearken back to the two countries\u2019 1980s-era war over the Falkland Islands: \u201cLet\u2019s do it all over again just like 1982,\u201d he posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n (Farage got in trouble<\/a> earlier in the tournament for posting a photo<\/a> of himself celebrating an England win by chugging a pint in a Three Lions jersey \u2026 only for observers to note it was a picture from the 2024 Euros.)<\/p>\n But in most cases, far-right leaders have swallowed their criticism of their diverse national teams and offered the basic messages of support expected of them, or in some cases, just stayed quiet.<\/p>\n National Rally leader Jordan Bardella, despite his past jabs at<\/a> French striker Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, congratulated the French team<\/a> on a good run after losing to Spain earlier this week and said they \u201cthrilled an entire nation\u201d with their World Cup performance.<\/p>\n And AfD leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla sought to downplay criticism of the German team\u2019s diversity from within their party: Asked about one AfD state-level politician\u2019s assertion<\/a> that Germany\u2019s national squad \u201chas lost the quality of an authentic German national team\u201d due to its diverse roster, both Weidel and Chrupalla were dismissive<\/a> of those comments.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a player of an ethnic group whom you deem inferior scores goals for you, what are you going to do? Disavow him as belonging to the nation that you love?\u201d asked Markovits. \u201cNo \u2026 you may deep down still doubt the genuine essence of his nationality, but you accept his goals and appropriate them as your own.\u201d<\/p>\n