Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla has demanded a public apology from France captain Kylian Mbappé and warned she could pursue legal action after the footballer called her a “despicable woman” for racist remarks he 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 was “pretending hard to be French, resentful, newly rich, arrogant, and ugly”. She also stated that France “won by a stroke and Mbappe was nervous and scared to death the whole match, as was his whole team”.
Kylian Mbappé post
Mbappé responded by calling Amarilla “a despicable woman” who was “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 she says she has admired all her 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 two until the age of 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. France last Christmas, I spent it with my family in Courchevel, and we welcomed the new year in Saint-Tropez. It 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 match, indicating remarks that he interpreted as insulting.“Your arrogance and contempt have been on my nerves since before the match, when you said: “If we have to dirty our hands, we spit”. We are not stupid; we understand well that the dirty stuff was the Paraguayan team, and that we are all the Paraguayan team. Then you said that they have to remove the make-up. We also understand that you look so elegant with make-up, and we, poor and rough as we are, do not even know what it is. All of Paraguay fell silent, including me. We got it,” he added.Amarilla also claimed that Mbappé showed poor sportsmanship during and after the match.“During the match, your arrogant behavior was evident, your contempt for each player, as if they were disgusting, and without even covering your mouth, when you said: “La concha de tu madre”, an extremely aggressive phrase in Latin America, and you know it.”She also claimed that Mbappé failed to show respect to the Paraguay goalkeeper after the final whistle.“And finally, you ignored the health of our goalkeeper. It is simply unacceptable. The respect between rivals after a match is almost sacred, in war as in peace, in defeat as in victory, and you did not shake hands and shout your victory in the face – this is simply unacceptable. You showed your contempt, your poor, in your contemptible man, in a single arrogance. It hurts me, it hurts my whole country, and deeply. France should make you responsible, because it is a nation of knights, with centuries of history and know-how. France should hold you accountable for your behavior,” he wrote.Amarilla acknowledged that she had since deleted her original post after reflecting on the language she had used.“My places were filled with boiling blood, that mixed race blood, that beautiful mixture of indigenous blood with the Spanish blood that flows in my veins. That’s what I wrote on today’s posts when you mocked those huge Paraguayan players who fought to draw until the end of the match. In any case, immediately, I regret to mistreat you with the same insults that I received, because I too am despised for being mixed and Latin, called ugly. Sorry and delete the post. I realized that we were repeating patterns that I hated, and I deleted them. I understand that it bothered you, because it is humiliating,” he said.Despite this admission, the senator insisted that Mbappé must also retract his remarks.“Now, I ask that you also withdraw your statement and apologize to me. I, too, will not tolerate your violence. You do not know me, you have no idea who I am, and you have no right to say that I am a despicable woman, unworthy of the office I have. I am a Senator of the Paraguayan Nation, elected by the people. Before this, I was also elected National Deputy by the people. Thousands of Paraguayans voted for me and consider me their voice. My primary commitment is to be the voice of the Paraguayan people, to speak against their silence, and to defend my country with my life. That’s what is expected of me,” wrote Amarilla.She continues to defend her Democratic mandate.“I represent my country because I was elected in free elections. I was elected freely to make its laws and to be its voice. You have no idea what it means to be elected to defend your country, to be the voice of the people. I was elected National Senator; I don’t understand the importance of my position.”Concluding her statement, Amarilla accused Mbappé of political and gender violence and warned that she would consider legal action if he did not apologize.“Who are you to call me unworthy or contemptible when you don’t even know me?! Pure and simple gender violence! Political violence against a woman who got where she is with the popular vote of her people. You despise me precisely because of my sex; you offend me precisely because I am a woman. You are not attacking my skin color, my preferences, or my statement as a woman, my position as a citizen, my statement of the woman, of your French citizen. I’m sorry, or I can take legal action for gender violence,” concluded Amarilla.