While Kylian Mbappé, Real Madrid and La Liga have spent the week apologising to Beijing, one voice broke the pattern. Marine Tondelier, national secretary of Les Écologistes and a candidate for the French presidency, posted on X on Wednesday that the Real Madrid forward had been correct all along.
“Kylian Mbappé was entirely right to call Mao Zedong a dictator,” Tondelier wrote.
She framed the comments as a historical statement rather than an opinion, pointing to the academic consensus on the Communist leader’s rule.
“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,” she added.
Read also: “There won’t be a second Schumacher”
Her intervention cuts against the direction every football institution has taken since Monday.
The apology tour
The row began when a clip from an older Mbappé interview resurfaced on Chinese social media on Monday, with the forward describing a meme of his face edited onto “some guy … I think he’s a Chinese dictator”, a reference to Mao. Within 24 hours the fallout was commercial.
Three Chinese partners, Dongpeng Beverage, Mengniu and Milkground, terminated their deals with the player on Tuesday, and China Central Television pulled his advertisements and suspended La Liga broadcasts. Mbappé issued a bilingual apology the same day.
“My comment was ill-judged and I now understand that it hurt many people in China,” he said.
Read also: Final verdict reached on Cristiano Ronaldo’s disputed goal in 1,000-goal chase
La Liga followed within hours, saying it “deeply regrets the offence that Kylian Mbappe’s recent comments have caused among Chinese fans”, with league president Javier Tebas expressing his own regret. Real Madrid issued its own apology on Wednesday.
‘A sign of weakness’
Tondelier, who has led the Greens in previous national campaigns and is now building a presidential bid, used the controversy to attack what she called European corporate deference to Beijing.
“Systematically yielding to China’s economic pressures is a sign of weakness,” she wrote.
She also argued that reaffirming established facts about Mao, totalitarianism and tens of millions of deaths “is never pointless” at a time when scientific and historical consensus is routinely contested by proponents of authoritarianism.
Read also: Man Utd and Arsenal target has one thing in common with Harry Kane
The commercial pressure on the forward is still active. CCTV said his apology would be judged by his future conduct, and none of the three Chinese sponsors has signalled a return.
Read also: “Probably a vice-captain”: Liverpool legend delivers Bruno Fernandes verdict amid Man Utd row
