The head of France's Ecology party on Wednesday waded into the dispute over controversial comments made by football superstar Kylian Mbappe, insisting he was right to call China's founding communist leader Mao Zedong a "dictator".
Mbappe, his Real Madrid side and the Spanish football federation have all apologised for the comments, which enraged China and led to Chinese sponsors dropping the football hero.
"Kylian Mbappe was entirely right to call Mao Zedong a dictator," Ecologists national secretary and presidential candidate said in a comment on X that could reignite the dispute.
"The tens of millions of deaths for which Mao is responsible, as well as the totalitarian nature of his regime, are confirmed by all historians," Tondelier added. Mbappe had "not expressed an opinion, but rather established facts".
"In an era when science is challenged daily by proponents of authoritarianism, it is never pointless" to reaffirm "established facts," said Tondelier, who stated that "systematically yielding to China’s economic pressures is a sign of weakness".
Other French politicians have refused to be drawn into the dispute. But Real Madrid on Wednesday became the latest party to apologise to China for the comments apparently making fun of Mao.
The controversy erupted after a clip of a video interview was shared in which Mbappe talked about being amused by an internet meme of his face photoshopped onto "some guy, think he's a Chinese dictator", an apparent reference to Mao.
Chinese sponsors dropped Real Madrid star forwar Mbappe, who later apologised for his "ill-judged" comments.
Spain's La Liga also apologised but Chinese state TV has suspended broadcasts of matches from the Spanish top flight.
hrc/jmt/tw/ach
