Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla has demanded a public apology from France captain Kylian Mbappé and warned she may pursue legal action after the footballer labeled her a “strange woman” for racist remarks she made following Paraguay’s exit from the FIFA World Cup.The dispute began after Amarilla posted offensive comments on social media following France’s Round of 16 win over Paraguay, referring to Mbappé as a “colonized Cameroonian” who “pretends to be tough French, angry, nouveau riche, arrogant, and ugly.” He also admitted that France “won by a fluke and Mbappe was nervous and scared to death the whole match, like his whole team.”
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Mbappé responded by calling Amarilla “a despicable woman” who is “unworthy” of serving in Paraguay’s Congress.Amarilla has now issued a lengthy response to X, insisting that his criticism was directed only at Mbappé and not at France, a country he says he has admired all his life.“The problem is between you and me. I have never said anything against France; on the contrary, I am with you. I studied in a French school from the age of twelve until I was seventeen, and I finished my schooling there. I am who I am thanks to the Collège de l’Inmaculee Concepcion, and I am here because of the education it gave me. We sang La Marseillaise and my own love of France with our love. Christmas, I spent it with my family in Courchevel, and we welcomed the New Year in Saint-Tropez. This has nothing to do with France; the problem is with you,” wrote Amarilla.The senator accused Mbappé of disrespecting Paraguay before and during the World Cup encounter, pointing to comments he interpreted as insults.“Your arrogance and disdain have been getting on my nerves since before the game, when you said, ‘If we have to get our hands dirty, we’re dirty.’ We are not stupid; we understand very well that the dirty thing is the Paraguayan team, and that we are all the Paraguayan team. Then you said they were going to remove the makeup. We understand that too, that you look very elegant with makeup, and we, poor and rude as we are, don’t even know what it is. All of Paraguay fell silent, including myself. We took it,” he added.Amarilla also accused Mbappé of showing poor sportsmanship during and after the match.“During the game, your proud attitude was visible, your contempt for each player, as if they were disgusting, and did not even cover your mouth, when you said, ‘La concha de tu madre,’ a very aggressive phrase in Latin America, and you know it.He even admitted that Mbappé failed to show respect to Paraguay’s goalkeeper after the final whistle.“And finally, you ignore the health of our goalkeeper. That is unacceptable. Respect between opponents after a match is almost sacred, in war as in peace, in defeat as in victory, and you did not shake his hand and you shouted your victory in his face–that is unacceptable. You show your contempt, and your secondary arrogance. I was hurt, my whole country was hurt, and it was bad. France should hold you accountable, because it is a country of knights, with centuries of history and skill. France must hold you accountable for your behavior,” he wrote.Amarilla acknowledged that she had deleted her original post after reflecting on the language she used.“My posts are filled with boiling blood, that mixed race blood, that beautiful mixture of Native Spanish blood that runs through my veins. That’s what I wrote about today’s posts when you mocked many Paraguayan players who fought on the same terms until the end of the match. But, right away, I regret treating you with the same insults that I received, because I was also despised because of my mixed race and Latina, called dirty. I regret it and deleted the post. I realized that I was repeating patterns that I hated, and I got rid of them. I understand you’re upset, because it’s embarrassing,” he said.Despite this claim, the senator insisted that Mbappé must also retract his remarks.“Now, I demand that you also retract your statement and apologize to me. I, too, will not tolerate your violence. You do not know me, you do not know who I am, and you have no right to say that I am a despicable woman, unworthy of the position I hold. I am a Senator of the Paraguayan Nation, elected by the people. Thousands of Paraguayans voted for me and consider me their voice. My main commitment is to be the voice of the Paraguayan people, to speak against their silence, and to defend my country with my life. That is what is expected of me,” Amarilla wrote.He continued by defending his democratic mandate.“I represent my country because I was elected in free elections. I was freely elected to make its laws and its voice. You have no idea what it means to be chosen to defend your country, to be the voice of the people. I was elected a National Senator; I don’t know if you know the importance of my position.”At the end of his statement, Amarilla accused Mbappé of political and gender-based violence and warned that he was considering legal action if he did not apologize.“Who are you to call me unworthy or despicable when you don’t even know me?! Pure and simple sexual violence! Political violence against a woman who got where she is with the popular vote of her people. You despise me because of my gender; you hurt me because I’m a woman. and apologize, or I can take legal action for gender violence,” Amarilla concluded.