Why France’s Victory Matters
By: Gaier Hester
Tags: France, Soccer, Multiculturalism, History, Sports

Ever since his “re-election” as president of Russia in 2012, Vladimir Putin has sought to re-invent his country as a sort of bastion of white ethnic nationalism and Christian traditionalism. While Russian nationalisms of the past have primarily leveraged pan-Slavist impulses in Orthodox-majority countries like Serbia and Bulgaria, this neo-traditionalist brand of ethnonationalism has inspired a wellspring of support in Catholic-majority Slavic countries like Croatia and Poland, as well as countries outside the Slavosphere like Hungary and Romania. Moreover, Putin’s international esteem has risen even in countries that have been historically antagonistic to the Kremlin — most notably the right wing in the United States and the United Kingdom. A 2017 poll revealed that over one third of US Republicans now held a favorable opinion of Putin, up from 17 per cent pre-Trump.

(It should be noted that Croats generally have no love for Russia given the Kremlin’s longstanding allegiance with arch-rival Serbia. Russia’s cozy relationship with former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic and the arch-prosecutors of the Bosnian Civil War does not go over well.)

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France, by contrast, has bucked the recent European trend towards right wing populism. In the spring of 2017, the French people side-stepped Marine Le Pen to elect dashing young centrist Emmanuel Macron as their president. Together with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Macron remains one of very few center-left leaders who are actually popular in the industrialized world. The banker-turned-president has not shied away from acknowledging the skeletons in France’s colonial closet, while also offering tangible support for reformist voices within the country’s large but long economically and culturally marginalized Muslim community.

And while most of the European media disparages migrants, France shows compassion. Its biggest recent news story about immigration was that of “Malian Spider-Man” Mamoudou Gassama, who formally received his French citizenship (as well as a personal merci from the president himself) after climbing to a fourth-floor balcony in Paris to save a baby. For so many migrants — in France and beyond — it was the best possible news story, at the best possible time.

France’s classy multi-ethnic squad could not be blamed for its tetchiness and trepidation at the outset of this year’s World Cup. A late-March “friendly” match between Les Bleus and Russia in St. Petersburg was marred by “monkey chants” and other racial slurs hurled at French star Paul Pogba (a born-and-bred Parisian of Guinean descent). Racist acts are common in a country with a severe problem of far-right football hooliganism. Some of these bad actors derailed a Zenit St. Petersburg game against the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia in November 2017 by unfurling a banner praising the genocidal Bosian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic. (No doubt this would have been on the minds of the Croatian players at the outset of last week’s tournament.)

The Croatian side played beautiful football from start to finish, making balloon animals out of heavyweights Argentina and Nigeria. They got a good scare from Nordic overachievers Iceland and Denmark before thankfully knocking the tournament hosts out of the running in the quarterfinals and edging out a very fired up English team in the semifinals.

But there was never any question in my mind of who deserved to win it all. In terms of personifying the sort of multi-ethnic salad bowl that Putin’s western admirers so despise, the only team comparable to Les Bleus was the Belgian squad, who beat Brazil in the quarters and only narrowly lost to France in the semis. A Belgian victory in the World Cup would have been a weird and wonderful thing, but France had the perfect history and football culture for the job — and the talent to make it happen.

France’s final 4–2 victory in the capital city of white ethnonationalism was made all the sweeter by a stunning performance from 19-year-old Kylian Mbappé — himself of mixed Cameroonian and Algerian ancestry. He became the first teenager to score in a World Cup final since Pele in 1958.

On the basis of soccer alone, France deserved a win. But for the world, their World Cup victory in Putin’s Russia was not just deserved — it was necessary.

Aux armes, citoyens!