Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old young man, nationalist and Catholic, member of a group of the French extreme right, died in the Lyon hospital on Saturday, February 14. He had been admitted since Thursday, when a group of far-left militants beat him up during a massive battle that broke out in a protest against an act by MEP Rima Hassan, at the University of Sciences Po.
The police believe that those responsible for the murder were part of a satellite organization of the LFI youth, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party, which has become the object of the wrath of other political parties. Mélenchon denies these insinuations and denounces that the entire story of this crime has been “manipulated.” The event, in any case, has greatly strained the electoral climate of the next municipal elections, which will be held on March 15 and 22, and is a reflection of the growing polarization into which France is increasingly entering.
Quentin Deranque was a fervent Catholic and mathematics student who was active in French Action, a monarchist and extreme right-wing organization. That day, however, she was supporting the Nemesis movement, made up of women and self-proclaimed feminist, opposed to Islam, trans women and racist. They had recruited a group of nearby people in case they needed help in case of violence. Nothing is clarified yet, but the Lyon prosecutor explained on Monday afternoon that the activists were attacked by far-left militants, who tried to tear off the banner they were carrying, threw one of them to the ground to kick her, and tried to strangle another.
There were chases. And the aggressors isolated three of the people who had attended the protest to help the Nemesis militants. One was Quentin Deranque, who fell to the ground and was hit “by at least six people,” the magistrate explained. In the melee of the victim’s attackers, according to the first information, there was supposedly Jacques-Elie Favrot, parliamentary assistant to the LFI deputy in the National Assembly Raphael Arnault. This deputy is an active member of the Jeune Garde [joven guardia]the anti-fascist organization that he co-founded and that usually accompanies LFI at rallies or demonstrations to guarantee the safety of its leaders. The prosecutor announced that an investigation for “voluntary manslaughter” was opened.
Arnault’s assistant refuted through his lawyer the accusations about his alleged involvement in the crime: “Jacques-Elie Favrot formally denies being responsible for this tragedy. He is not responsible for the blows inflicted,” the lawyer declared to The Worldwithout denying the presence of the young man in the vicinity of Sciences Po, where the fight occurred.
The spotlight is also on Deputy Arnault. His record – he is listed by the police as dangerous due to a conviction for group violence in 2022 – had already generated controversy at the time of his election in 2024. The far-right of the National Regroupment has taken advantage of the moment of tension to request that anti-fascist movements be included in the file of terrorist organizations.
The Lyon prosecutor will provide more information today. But the event is already a top-level political issue in France. The pressure against LFI comes from all fronts and it is also evident that it seeks to weaken its strength in the next municipal elections, in which many municipalities, especially those with a strong Muslim presence, could pass into the hands of its candidates. “It is clearly the extreme left that kills,” he said, coinciding with a massive tribute to Quentin D. in the Saint-Georges church. He pointed in the same direction: “It is no mystery: La Francia Insoumise is on the extreme left,” he remarked.
“In Lyon, Quentin was the victim of unprecedented violence,” Macron wrote on his social media account
The Government spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, joined this Monday in the public denunciation of Mélenchon’s party. “France Insoumise has been fostering a climate of violence for years. LFI maintains proven and assumed links with extremely violent ultra-left groups,” Bregeon said on BFMTV/RMC. The spokesperson also wanted to underline the “moral responsibility of LFI in this exacerbated climate of violence.”
The event coincides with the inclusion in the Ministry of the Interior’s registry of LFI as a “far-left” organization. A highly contested decision by the party and its voters. In this context, just one month before the municipal elections throughout France, the issue has also acquired an electoral character. Some of the representatives of the left in favor of breaking ties with LFI, such as Raphael Glucksman, MEP and possible candidate for the 2027 presidential elections, pointed out that it is “unthinkable” for the left to “sow the slightest doubt” about a “possible alliance with LFI.”
“This brutalization of public debate must be put to an end,” Glucksmann declared on RTL, calling for “responsibility of all political leaders who stoke hatred, including those of LFI.” Mélenchon’s party is today the public enemy of establishment French, who would prefer any situation to finding his leader in the second round of the presidential elections.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon had until now vehemently defended the Jeune Garde organization, linked to the leftist movement. “They have protected our demonstrations when they come to attack us,” he proclaimed at a rally in Auxerre, in April 2025. This weekend he distanced himself from the event. “We have nothing to do with it; [la eurodiputada de LFI Rima Hassan] It has nothing to do with what happened. Everything happened somewhere else. “Everything was manipulated, arranged,” he denounced.
