The death of a far-right activist in France earlier this month after a street brawl has deepened the country’s political polarization as the election approaches, prompting criticism from the Trump administration.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for peace ahead of a rally planned for Saturday by far-right groups in memory of activist Quentin Delanque, 23.
Delanque suffered severe head injuries in a brawl in Lyon on February 12, and died two days later.
France’s former prime minister compared the death to the murder of American conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Here’s what we know:
The scuffle was caught on video, showing several masked people kicking and punching the man as he fell to the ground, sending shock and anger across France.
Two people have been charged with murder in connection with Derank’s death, and a total of 11 people have been arrested. Lyon prosecutor Thierry Derain said some of those arrested admitted their involvement in the brawl, but all denied intending to kill Delanque.
One of the men charged with complicity in the murder has been identified as an aide to a parliamentarian from the far-left party France Unboud (La France Insaumise). He denies any involvement.
Mr. Delanque was beaten near a conference center in Lyon where France Unboud executives were speaking. The party has 71 members in the 577-member Diet.
His death sparked several incidents. Last Sunday, after a neo-Nazi rally, Paris’s Place de la République was covered in swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans, and France Enboud’s offices were also attacked.
A far-right rally was held in Lyon on Saturday, with between 2,000 and 3,000 people taking part, according to the Interior Ministry. Live television broadcasts showed some demonstrators wearing masks. The rally was attended by groups such as Action Française, which is linked to Delanque, and was under close police surveillance.
Political temperatures are heating up in France ahead of local elections in March and next year’s presidential vote. Opinion polls suggest that the far-right party Rassemblement Nationale could win the presidency for the first time.
“There is no place in France for movements that employ violence or justify violence,” Macron told reporters during a visit to India earlier this week.
Addressing radical left-wing groups, President Macron said: “When people say they have set up militias for their own protection, they are committing a moral violation. Everyone must get their house in order.”
The National Assembly, the largest faction in parliament, blames the dehumanizing language of the radical left for Mr. Delanque’s death. But party leader Jordan Bardella called on supporters not to attend Saturday’s rally in Lyon.
French sociologists who track extremist political violence say far-right and neo-Nazi groups have driven most of the incidents in recent decades.
Of the 57 deaths related to violence between political groups in France between 1986 and 2017, all but five were committed by right-wing extremists, according to sociology professor Isabelle Sommier.
“Political violence has increased significantly over the past decade, with attacks doubling and the number of clashes increasing fivefold,” Sommier told French newspaper Le Monde this week.
“Six deaths have already been recorded since 2022, all at the hands of radical right-wing activists,” she added.
The Trump administration said Delanque’s death was the result of left-wing violence, consistent with its criticism of left-wing groups in the country.
Last September, President Trump signed an order designating the anti-fascist movement Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, accusing it of organizing political violence aimed at overthrowing the U.S. government.
“Reports that Quentin Delanque was killed by left-wing extremists, corroborated by the French Interior Minister, should concern us all,” the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau said on Friday.
“The violent radical left is on the rise, and its role in the death of Quentin Delanque shows it poses a threat to public safety,” the agency added.
Mr. Delanque’s death sparked a diplomatic spat between France and Italy, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni following suit. Meloni said on the X show that Delanc’s death was caused by “groups associated with left-wing extremism” and blamed the “climate of ideological hatred sweeping several countries.”
“I’m always amazed that nationalists who don’t want to be bothered about their own country are always the first to comment on what’s happening in other countries,” President Macron responded.
Since Macron was first elected in 2017, French politics has become increasingly fragmented. There have been five prime ministers in the past two years, but each has struggled to cobble together a majority in a divided parliament.
Delanque’s murder has put France’s far left in the spotlight and could completely change the political landscape, making it unfavorable for centrist parties to reach an agreement with the far-left France Enboud and potentially favoring the National Rally.
“Is France not succumbing to the turmoil and the National Assembly is smiling?” asked analyst Guillaume Tabard in this week’s Le Figaro, noting that the taboos traditionally attached to far-right parties have now been transferred to far-left parties.
“With the death of Quentin Delanque, there has been a kind of landslide. The party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon (Unyielding France) has become the most criticized politically and in the media. This is a boon for the party of Jourdan Bardera, which has enjoyed this ‘privilege’ for more than half a century,” Tabard wrote.
Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin believes this is a turning point for the country.
“For France, this is the ‘Charlie Kirk moment’ that President Trump’s America experienced a few months ago with the assassination of Charlie Kirk by a murderer claiming to be an anti-fascist,” de Villepin wrote in X.
