Far-right activist Quentin Deranque, 23, died on Saturday after being beaten by hard-left activists outside a conference centre in Lyon where Rima Hassan, a member of the European Parliament, was speaking
International News via Reuters:
Eleven people including two aides to a French far-left lawmaker were arrested in France overnight and early on Wednesday on suspicion of involvement in the killing of a far-right activist last weekend in Lyon, according to the Lyon prosecutor’s office, which has opened a murder investigation.
Among them is at least one aide to Raphael Arnault, a lawmaker from far-left party France Unbowed (LFI), who said on Tuesday that the aide had “stopped all parliamentary work”.
“It is now up to the investigation to determine responsibility,” Arnault said on X.
Another of Arnault’s assistants was also among the detained, French media outlets reported. The prosecutor did not immediately confirm the report and Arnault did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Far-right activist Quentin Deranque, 23, died on Saturday after being beaten by hard-left activists outside a conference centre in Lyon where Rima Hassan, a member of the European Parliament, was speaking.
Videos of the confrontation were widely shared on social media. Hassan and other members of the LFI have condemned the killing.
Both the hard left and hard right have been capitalising on frustration with the minority centrist government ahead of local elections next month and a presidential vote next year, set to take place in a highly polarised environment.
Jordan Bardella, party president of the far-right National Rally, has called for Arnault’s resignation.
“The left and the far-left have crossed an unacceptable red line in our democracy: respect for the opinions and physical integrity of their opponents,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
In a separate news conference, the LFI’s national coordinator Manuel Bompard said his party was in no way responsible for Deranque’s death, and that it now felt threatened itself.
Shortly after the announcement of the arrests on Wednesday morning, the Paris headquarters of LFI received a bomb threat and had to be evacuated until the all-clear was given when police secured the scene.
Reporting by Sophie Louet, Gabriel Stargardter, Gianluca Lo Nostro in Paris, Charlotte Van Campenhout in Amsterdam, Inti Landauro in Brussels; Editing by Kevin Liffey
