Cascading injuries and now a good controversy as we (do) like them (not), the Rugby World Cup does not start under the best auspices for the XV of France. After Paul Willemse’s injury and World Cup forfeit, Fabien Galthié and his staff decided to call Montpellier’s Bastien Chalureau, sentenced by the Toulouse criminal court in 2020 for “acts of violence with the circumstance that these the latter were committed because of the race or ethnicity of the victim”.
For his part, Chalureau, who acknowledges the acts of violence but denies having uttered racist insults, was given a six-month suspended prison sentence. Conviction to which he appealed, the instruction is still in progress. This heavy liability is not to everyone’s taste and his selection for the World Cup with the XV of France sparked a wave of indignation. Both among supporters, but also in the political world, like the deputy La France insoumise (LFI) for Seine-Saint-Denis, Thomas Portes.
“It’s not just LFI, there are a number of supporters who were moved by the summons of Bastien Chalureau to the France team,” he said on Sunday in La Matinale Week-End, on RMC. There was a conviction for a fight after a party, and it’s not a trivial fight. He said racist words, two testimonies confirmed his remarks. He was given a suspended prison sentence. In the reasons for the conviction, it is said that this violence was committed because of ethnicity or race. We cannot accept today having a rugby player in the France team who has been convicted of racist acts. »
Thomas Portes wants to seize the Minister of Sports
In The Midi Dispatchrugby player Yannick Larguet recounted his assault dated at the end of January 2020. “We were going to go down to the Jean-Jaurès car park [à Toulouse]. I heard a person shouting: “How are you googlings?” I turned around and saw a burly guy crossing the Jean-Jaurès alleys with a friend. I asked if he was talking to me. He continued his racist insults incessantly. I wanted to turn around and he landed a punch with all his might in the jaw. I backed up, I was in the fog. During that time, he hit my boyfriend. He was hysterical, enraged. I didn’t know who assaulted me but his friends called him Chalu. I recognized him on the Stade Toulousain website. »
The LFI deputy for his part announced that he wanted to “seize the Minister of Sports on Monday so that she intervenes and asks the France team not to select him. “He has the right to the presumption of innocence but there was a conviction at first instance, added Thomas Portes. I add that this player likes posts on the social networks of a rapper [Millésime K] which is assimilated to the extreme right and whose texts are racist and homophobic. If Bastien Chalureau is cleared after the appeal of the accusations of racism, he will be able to play again in the France team. »