Death in Lyon: the growing violence in French politics

French politics is starting to give off a “whiff of near civil war”, said Renaud Dély on France Info (Paris). On 12 February in Lyon, a far-right activist and devout Catholic called Quentin Deranque was “lynched in the street for his political beliefs by thugs from the far-left”. He died in hospital from head injuries two days later.

Left has ‘offered a martyr’

The 23-year-old data scientist was a member of Audace Lyon, a neo-fascist group that organises “white self-defence” training sessions, and which had offered to provide security to a group of self-proclaimed “feminist nationalists” protesting against the appearance of radical-left MEP Rima Hassan at a university conference. Hassan, well known for her fiercely pro-Palestinian views, is a leading light of France Unbowed (LFI), the party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the candidate who finished third in the 2022 presidential election.

Most of the 11 people arrested over Deranque’s death had been members of the banned group Young Guard, which has been aligned with LFI, and at least three of whom had reportedly worked for one of its MPs, Raphaël Arnault. Mélenchon insists his party abhors violence, but it now looks as if it will not fare well in next month’s municipal elections. Lyon itself is known as a bastion of the far-right, and a far-right demonstration swept through the city on Saturday.

Deranque’s killing did not come as a surprise, said Paul Sugy in Le Figaro (Paris). Despite its claims to the contrary, the Left’s “anti-fascist” movement has long endorsed physical violence. For evidence of that you just have to look at the Young Guard, which Arnault co-founded in Lyon in 2018, said Gavin Mortimer in The Spectator. It was ordered to disband last summer by the Council of State for inciting violence, and for offering recruits street-fighting lessons. Given its close ties to this proscribed organisation, Mélenchon’s LFI, already languishing at 10% in the polls before the scandal, is unlikely to recover its reputation. What happened in Lyon last week buries for ever the Left’s constant claim of moral superiority.

The killers of Deranque “did not simply commit murder”, said Le Monde (Paris). In mimicking the methods of the “fascists” whom they say they are fighting, “they have sullied progressive and humanist struggles and offered a martyr to their adversaries”. Nevertheless, justified horror at their scandalous violence should not blind us to the unsavoury nature of many of those in the far-right National Rally (RN), now leading in the polls ahead of next year’s presidential election. Some of its supporters wantonly promote violence, and are “implacable enemies of democracy and the Republic”.

‘irresponsible political opportunism’

The Right and far-right are “shamefully exploiting” this tragedy, said Anthony Cortes in L’Humanité (Paris). By demonising the entire Left, figures such as RN president Jordan Bardella hope the electorate will overlook far-right brutality, such as last month’s savage beating near Lyon of a 17-year-old student of Syrian origin. Just as French parties, Mélenchon’s included, have tried to ostracise the RN, so Bardella is now asking other parties to form a united front against LFI. Such “irresponsible political opportunism” in the wake of Deranque’s death may well have fuelled last week’s bomb threat against LFI’s Paris HQ, and attacks against the party’s offices across the country.

Politicians and citizens must together do all they can to ensure the situation doesn’t escalate further, said Fabienne Lemahieu in La Croix (Paris). Things may be bad, but they’re still a far cry “from the meticulously planned clashes of the 1970s and 1980s between skinheads and antifascists”. Let’s keep things that way by maintaining calm.

To that end, LFI must urgently carry out a “genuine internal reassessment”, said Loup Besmond de Senneville in the same paper. It must stop lowering the public discourse by turning everything into a face-off. “The far-right must be fought at the ballot box and through ideas, not by shouting or becoming complicit with those who kill.”