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French far-right protest over activist death ends peacefully

Phil Serafino, Bloomberg News on

Published in News & Features

A march in Lyon organized by far-right groups to honor a man beaten to death in a fight went off without violence Saturday after authorities put a massive police presence on the streets.

About 3,200 people turned out for the rally and march, local media reported, citing estimates from the prefecture of the region. The event paid homage to 23-year-old Quentin Deranque, described by French media as a far-right activist. Three of the 11 people arrested in this month’s fatal attack told authorities they were part of or close to ultra-left movements, the Lyon prosecutor said on Thursday.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged calm before the event. Speaking to reporters Saturday morning in Paris, he said he would meet with government ministers next week to look at which violent groups operate in France and any links they may have to political parties.

“In the Republic, no violence is legitimate,” he said. “There is no place for militias, wherever they come from. That’s it.”

Deranque’s death on Feb. 14 has dominated headlines in France for a week, heightening tensions between Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party and Jean-Luc Melenchon’s France Unbowed on the far left.

 

Le Pen’s party advised its members not to attend Saturday’s event because of the risk of a confrontation. The march was organized via social media by extreme far-right groups that National Rally doesn’t want to associate with, the party’s president, Jordan Bardella, told members Friday, according to Agence France-Presse.

Lyon Mayor Grégory Doucet asked officials to ban the march, citing the risk of violence, but Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said Friday on RTL Radio that he would let it go ahead with an “extremely large police presence.”

On Thursday, Lyon prosecutor Thierry Dran said his office had asked for seven of the 11 people arrested in the attack to be charged with intentional homicide. Of the seven, one is a parliamentary assistant, Dran said.


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