, Dec 9 () –
The Government of France has ruled out this Thursday joining the diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, since it considers that “sport is a world that must be preserved from political interference as much as possible.”
The United States has promoted a boycott to which countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom or Canada have already joined and that implies not sending political representation to the Olympic Games that China will host in February, without affecting in principle the athletes of each of these countries.
The French Foreign Ministry indicated on Tuesday, through a spokeswoman, that Paris was in favor of “coordinating at European level” any measure and this Thursday the Minister of Education and Sports, Jean-Michel Blanquer, has qualified in relation to the boycott that France “will not.”
In this sense, he has defended in an interview on BFMTV and RMC that in the political arena the French government has spoken “without ambiguity” in relation to Beijing, from the “persecution” of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang to the disappearance of tennis player Peng Shuai. “We must be clear, firm, we will not accept it,” he said.
However, the diplomatic boycott is “another story”, since it considers that it can affect the sport itself and have unwanted drifts. Blanquer has clarified that he will not go to Beijing, but the head of Sports at the Ministry, Roxana Maracineanu, will.
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