“Assassinated because he opposed extremist and fascist ideas.“Here are the first words of the tribune, published in the daily The Team and signed by more than three hundred personalities from the world of rugby, in tribute to Federico Martin Aramburu, assassinated by an extremist militant on March 19. A month after the death of the former Argentinian international and Biarritz player, Bernard Laporte, president of the French Rugby Federation, Fabien Galthié, the coach of the XV of France, or his players like Antoine Dupont, Romain Ntamack or Cyril Baille brought their voices, “in agreement with the Aramburu family“.
“Fede had in him the values of rugby, of humanism“, evokes the platform. Throughout the text, these values, cited in the World Rugby Charter since 2009, are defended: integrity, passion, solidarity, discipline and respect. The platform also aims to oppose and denounce the “far-right ideology“, Ihe main defendants are former members of the GUD, a far-right French union.
“Federico and Shaun were off the field of play, and as usual, did not allow words to be spoken contrary to their thinking, their upbringing, their philosophy of life. They did not turn their heads pretending to have seen nothing but they chose to react, to what for them was obvious.”
Tribune of personalities from the world of rugby in tribute to Federico Martin Aramburu
Among the signatories are also a number of Argentinian internationals (Mariano Galarza, Horacio Agulla, Martin Gaitan…), French coaches (Ugo Mola, Laurent Labit…), but also former internationals from the XV of France (Thierry Dusautoir, Imanol Harinordoquy, Dimitri Yachvili, Marc Lievremont…) These personalities, who knew Federico Martin Aramburu from near or far add to his portrait “generosity, benevolence, the fight for social justice and above all the love of family and friendly sharing“.
At the end of this forum, a sentence also marks: “On March 19, in the early morning, it could have been each of us in Federico’s place“. And to conclude with a strong message: “Our differences are our wealth. we are a nation“.