France\u2019s most streamed singer Aya Nakamura has joined the chorus of voices calling on the French electorate to vote against the far right in Sunday\u2019s high stakes election. <\/p>\n
The National Rally party, which is slated to win big in this Sunday\u2019s second round of voting, has drawn criticism and concern from French celebrities of dual nationality, worried about the impact of their immigration policy plans. The party, headed by 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, hopes to restrict dual nationals from accessing certain state jobs. It also wants to strip citizenship rights from those born to foreign parents on French soil. <\/p>\n
Popstar Nakamura, who immigrated to France from Mali as a child and rose to fame with her smash hit song \u201cDjadja,\u201d made the call in a social media post on Tuesday that zeroed in on her own experiences of racism in France. <\/p>\n
The 29-year-old said in her post that she is \u201cwell placed to understand and know the place of racism in our country.\u201d <\/p>\n
Nakamura said that although she had previously chosen not to weigh in on certain issues, she now understood that her role as a major musical artist requires her to \u201cspeak out\u201d during such an \u201cimportant moment.\u201d <\/p>\n
She called on her fans to vote against \u201cthe only extreme to be condemned,\u201d in what appeared to be a reference to the far right. <\/p>\n
Nakamura herself is no stranger to threats from the far right, having previously found herself at the center of a controversy earlier this year when speculation mounted that she would perform the classic French song \u201cJe ne regrette rien\u201d at the Olympics opening ceremony. <\/p>\n
Far-right fringe groups and politicians, including Marion Mar\u00e9chal, a far-right lawmaker and niece of Marine Le Pen, complained that Nakamura does not even \u201csing in French.\u201d This swipe was seemingly a reference to the blend of French and African slang that Nakamura uses in her lyrics. <\/p>\n
France\u2019s top sports stars have also been using their platforms to urge the public not to vote for the far right. Jules Kounde, a 25-year-old French Beninese national who plays on the French national team, used a press conference during the Euros tournament to share what he called his own \u201cpolitical position.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI was disappointed to see the direction France is taking, with strong support for a party against our values,\u201d Kounde told journalists after the match between France and Belgium on Monday. \u201cI believe it\u2019s important to block the extreme right, the National Rally, because this party will not lead our country towards more freedom.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kounde\u2019s remarks echo comments from fellow football star Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, who told journalists earlier during the tournament that he is \u201cagainst extremes.\u201d Mbapp\u00e9, whose family originally came from Algeria and Cameroon, stressed that he didn\u2019t want to \u201crepresent a country\u201d that didn\u2019t embody his \u201cvalues.\u201d <\/p>\n
The French far right\u2019s strong showing in the first round has prompted concern from several European countries and even top United Nations officials. The UN\u2019s human rights chief Volker Turk told a press conference in Geneva Wednesday that recent far-right gains across Europe should serve as an \u201calarm bell.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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France\u2019s most streamed singer Aya Nakamura has joined the chorus of voices calling on the French electorate to vote against the far right in Sunday\u2019s high stakes election. The National Rally party, which is slated to win big in this Sunday\u2019s second round of voting, has drawn criticism and concern from French celebrities of dual <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}