France’s centrists look petty after their charity football boycott

There should be a charity football match this evening in Paris between a team of MPs and an XI made up of former footballers, such as World Cup winner Christian Karembeu and the ex-Arsenal star Robert Pires. All proceeds – estimated to be around €35,000 (£32,000) – will go to a charity that protects children from online abuse.

But on Tuesday evening several left-wing MPs withdrew because they couldn’t bring themselves to play in a team that, for the first time since the side was formed in 2014, contained some players from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.

In statements issued by the Greens, Socialist party and La France Insoumise, they claimed that their participation in the match would contribute to the ‘normalisation’ of the National Rally.

The parliamentary president of Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance, Aurore Bergé, also recommended that no one from the party should sully their reputation by exchanging passes with a right-wing MP.