MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Macri apologizes for calling Germans “a superior race”

Macri meant that Germany can never be ruled out as a top contestant for the World Cup, but he could not avoid bringing up race issues

Former Argentine President Mauricio Macri publicly apologized Tuesday for saying that Germany was a “superior race,” a statement which earned him strong criticism from the entire political spectrum.

“Yesterday talking about the World Cup and obviously referring to the indisputable soccer skills of Germany, I had an inappropriate phrase that refers to the worst nightmares of humanity, so I want to clarify it and offer my apologies,” Macri said on Twitter.

A former Boca Juniors president and current FIFA official, Macri said in a TV interview with TN that “Germany can never be discarded because, superior race, they always play until the end.”

“When I say that Macrism is Nazi some people call me exaggerated... Does Macri know that the ”master race“ murdered two million children under ten years old?” Jewish leader Jorge Elbaum said also on Twitter.

“Raza superior”:
Por un comentario de Mauricio Macri sobre Alemania pic.twitter.com/oBx5c6xoLp

— ¿Por qué es tendencia? (@porquetendencia) November 15, 2022

The former ambassador to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance added: “Funny... isn't it? The concept of 'master race' is the one used by Hitler...”

National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (Inadi) Director Victoria Donda wrote that “we cannot give more room to that poison called racism.” She insisted that it was former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who “said that 'racism is poison. Hatred is poison. And this poison exists in our society.'”

Buenos Aires City lawmaker Victoria Montenegro of President Alberto Fernández's Frente de Todos (FdT) told Télam that Macri's words were “a political definition that tries to install negationism with all its violence.”

”It is sad and violent at the same time, and also, one identifies it with the internal of Juntos por el Cambio where they are fighting to see who looks more like (Javier) Milei“, she added.

Argentine media were also quick to recall that back in 2013, Macri's Ecuadorian communications advisor Jaime Durán Barba had said that ”Hitler was a spectacular guy.”

It remains to be seen how this football statement plays out in next year's presidential elections, even if Macri himself is not running.