Spain defender Pau Cubarsí has urged tolerance and respect after former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy questioned the legitimacy of France’s national team, claiming the side “don’t have any French players.”

Rajoy made the remarks in a column for Spanish newspaper El Debate as France prepared to face Spain in a World Cup semifinal, suggesting the French squad did not reflect what he considered to be a traditional national identity.

Speaking to Catalan radio station RAC1, Cubarsí firmly rejected that view. The Barcelona centre-back stressed that nationality is defined by citizenship and belonging, not by race or origin.

If they play for the French national team then at the end of the day they are French, regardless of the colour of their skin, because ultimately we have to be tolerant with everyone, Cubarsí said. The colour of their skin doesn’t matter because we are all people and we all deserve respect.

Rajoy’s comments triggered a wave of condemnation across Spain’s political spectrum. Óscar Puente, Spain’s Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, denounced the former premier as a dim-witted, post-Francoist crook, accusing him of stoking division at a moment when football should be uniting people.

The French embassy in Madrid also intervened, issuing a pointed reminder that every member of the France squad is legally French. Of the 26 players selected, 23 were born in France, while the remaining three were born abroad but hold French nationality.

In France, senior politicians framed Rajoy’s remarks as part of a broader pattern of racialised attacks on the national team. Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist Party, underlined that France is not an ethnic nation and has no skin color or religion, describing it instead as a political community bound by republican values, to the dismay of the racist right.

Naïma Moutchou, France’s Minister of the Overseas, called on the French Football Federation to consider legal action against Rajoy. She argued that every success by Les Bleus is followed by the same obsessions and racist insults, which she described as a methodical and normalised hatred of France and what it represents.

The controversy comes shortly after France captain Kylian Mbappé publicly condemned racist remarks by Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla, whom he labelled a despicable woman unworthy of her office, underscoring how footballers are increasingly confronting discrimination beyond the pitch.