Le Pen says Mbappe should not ‘lecture’ French voters

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Friday said that Kylian Mbappe should not be telling French people how to vote after the football star warned the country could not be left “in the hands of these people”.

After the far-right National Rally party emerged as the winner of the first round of snap parliamentary polls last weekend, Mbappe, 25, said the results were “catastrophic” and urged French people to vote against the far-right in the runoff vote on Sunday.

Mbappe’s France and Christiano Ronaldo’s Portugal go head-to-head in Hamburg on Friday evening in the Euro 2024 quarter finals.

Speaking in an interview with CNN, Le Pen said he was a “very good” footballer but insisted it was not his place to give voting instructions.

“Mbappe doesn’t represent French people with an immigration background, because there are far more of them living on the minimum wage, who can’t afford housing and can’t afford heating, than people like Mr Mbappe,” Le Pen said in an excerpt of the interview released on Friday.

“This tendency for actors, footballers and singers to come forward and tell French people how they should vote, and particularly people who earn 1,300 or 1,400 euros ($1,400-1,500) a month, while they are millionaires or even billionaires who live abroad, it’s starting to be not well received in our country,” she added.

“French people are fed up with being lectured and advised on how to vote. This election is an election of emancipation in which the French people want to take back control of their destiny and vote as they see fit,” Le Pen said.

“I think that at a time when the population is preparing to vote, they (stars and celebrities) should show a little restraint.”

The latest forecasts predict Le Pen’s party will wield the biggest bloc in the National Assembly lower house, but fall short of an outright majority.

A number of prominent football players including France full-back Jules Kounde have urged French people to block the far-right.