Ibrahima Konaté, on the eve of the legislative elections: “Diversity has always been our strength”

On the eve of the first round of the legislative elections, the defender of the Blues Ibrahima Konaté, Malian and French, was questioned this Saturday in a press conference about his dual nationality, at a time when this subject is recurrent in the political debate in France, marked by a strong surge of racist remarks: “Of course it worries me, what is happening worries me, he reacted. We cannot leave power to certain people who are in the spirit of dividing people. Diversity has always been our strength. I come from an immigrant background and when I hear everything that is said on social networks or TV channels, the media have a very important role and sometimes they do not do it well, because they surf on fear.”

While the Blues had rather dealt with the subject since the speeches of Marcus Thuram and Kylian Mbappé, the Liverpool player calmly developed a long speech: “We must stop the prejudices, the stereotypes, he believes. There is always a minority that will cause harm to the majority but when I see my parents, the jobs they had, garbage collector or cleaner, working impossible hours, it saddens me that we do not highlight these kinds of people who gave their health for France. We talk a lot about immigration, Islam, we must stop and it saddens me because it is never the people concerned who speak about these subjects.”

“Be together in all circumstances, not be in division”

“France is a magnificent country,” concludes Konaté. Some only have TV channels to get the news and I can’t blame them, it’s complicated to disentangle fact from fiction, and for some there are private experiences that have marked them for life, I can to understand. But behind skin color, there are hearts, that’s the most important thing because you can’t make a puzzle with the same pieces. I encourage everyone to go and vote, I don’t want to tell people what to do but we must be together in all circumstances, not be in division, that will only bring harm to everyone and future generations. . »