French President Francois Hollande has set the cat among the pigeons after criticising Islam and revealing his opposition to immigration in private conversations.
In a private conversation contained in a new book called A President Should Not Say That, Hollande says footballers are all part of a serious identity crisis.
He told journalists that there was a “fragmentation, an ethnicisation” in the French international team and that the “facts were terrible”.
Hollande made his comments soon after his election in 2012.
He reveals that he no longer supports mass immigration, saying “I think there are too many arrivals” and says: “It’s true there’s a problem with Islam, it’s true. It’s not in doubt.”
Hollande is quoted as saying in the book published last week.
Hollande also told the Le Monde journalists Gerard David and Fabrice Lhomme: “I think there are too many arrivals of immigration that shouldn’t be there.”
Hollande says of Marianne, the mythical female symbol of the French Republic: “The veiled woman of today will be the Marianne tomorrow.”
