LYON, France: French authorities have opened a murder investigation into the death of a 23-year-old far-right activist who was fatally injured during clashes during a protest in Lyon, prosecutors said on Monday.
Quentin Deranque died after suffering a severe brain injury when he was attacked on Thursday by “at least six” people, Lyon prosecutor Thierry Dran told a press conference.
The incident occurred during a far-right protest against a left-wing politician speaking at a university in the city.
No arrests have been made. Investigators are working to identify masked and hooded suspects.
The case is being treated as “intentional homicide” and “aggravated assault”, Dran said.
Clashes between rival groups
A source close to the investigation, cited by AFP, said there had been “a pitched battle between members of the far left and the far right”.
Video footage broadcast by TF1 showed around a dozen people striking three individuals lying on the ground, two of whom managed to escape.
A witness told AFP that “people were hitting each other with iron bars”.
An anti-immigration collective called Nemesis said Deranque had attended the protest to protect its members.
The group blamed the killing on Jeune Garde (Young Guard), a youth organisation co-founded by a lawmaker from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party before his election to parliament.
Jeune Garde, which was dissolved in June, denied any links to the “tragic events”.
Political blame and reactions
The killing has heightened tensions between France’s far right and hard left ahead of municipal elections in March and the 2027 presidential race.
Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon accused LFI of having “encouraged a climate of violence for years”.
Speaking to BFMTV, she said there was “a moral responsibility on the part of LFI” given the political climate.
LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon denied that his party bore responsibility. LFI lawmaker Raphaël Arnault, who co-founded Jeune Garde, said he was horrified by the death.
Yaël Braun-Pivet, speaker of the National Assembly, said one of Arnault’s assistants had been banned from parliament after being mentioned by several witnesses in the investigation.
On the far right, National Rally (RN) leader Marine Le Pen condemned what she described as the actions of the “barbarians responsible for this lynching”.
Opinion polls show the far right in a strong position ahead of the 2027 presidential election, when President Emmanuel Macron will be unable to seek a third consecutive term.
Le Pen has said she will decide whether to run after an appeal court ruling expected in July.
Her deputy, Jordan Bardella, has emerged as another potential candidate.
A poll of 1,000 people published on Sunday placed Bardella as the preferred candidate for 2027, ahead of Le Pen.
The French left had previously formed a broad alliance to counter the far right in snap parliamentary elections called by Macron in 2024.
The move weakened Macron’s majority, while the RN became the largest party in the lower house.
Raphaël Glucksmann, a centre-left member of the European Parliament, said on Monday that another broad alliance with LFI was “unthinkable”.
