French prosecutors have opened an investigation into racist abuse aimed at Kylian Mbappé after a complaint over social media remarks by Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla. The Paris prosecutor’s office said Tuesday that the inquiry began after the French Football Federation referred the case to the national unit for combating online hate.
The move gives the row a formal legal turn in France, where the remarks could be treated as aggravated public insult or incitement to hatred or violence. Those offences carry a penalty of up to one year in prison and a €45,000 fine, putting a senior elected official in the frame at a moment when the dispute has already spilled far beyond social media.
The posts came after Paraguay lost to France at the World Cup on Saturday. In comments that drew wide condemnation, Amarilla described Mbappé as a “colonised Cameroonian, desperately trying to pass himself off as French” and as a “brute who had not learned to write,” and said Paraguay’s players should have slapped him after the match. Mbappé answered publicly, calling her “a despicable woman and unworthy of your position,” saying she did not represent Paraguay, and arguing that her tirade had made the world forget Paraguay’s journey and historic effort in the tournament.
Amarilla then tried to soften the damage without backing away from the confrontation. She posted an open letter in French and Spanish, said she regretted mistreating Mbappé with “the same insults” she had received as a mixed-race person, and said she had deleted the original post. But she also demanded an apology from him and threatened legal action if he did not retract his comments, leaving the row suspended between remorse and defiance.
Paraguay’s government has already distanced itself from her remarks, saying they were contrary to the values and principles that support peaceful coexistence and respect for human dignity, and that they did not represent the position of the Paraguayan government or the Paraguayan people. Emmanuel Macron also voiced support for Mbappé on social media. The open question now is whether prosecutors will go on to seek charges or let the inquiry stop at the investigation stage, but for now the complaint has turned one senator’s post into a case that could carry criminal consequences in France.
