2026-02-22 20:22
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2026-02-22 20:22
France will summon US ambassador Charles Kushner to protest against the Donald Trump administration's comments regarding the fatal beating of a far-right activist, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, quoted by the AP agency on Sunday.
Barrot's statement is a response to an entry by the US Department of State's Anti-Terrorism Bureau on the X website, which said that “the reports, confirmed by the French Minister of the Interior, that Quentin Deranque was killed by left-wing militants should worry us all.”
The US administration also stated in the post that “the radical left is growing in strength, and its role in the death of Quentin Deranque shows how great a threat it poses to public safety.” “We will continue to monitor the situation and expect the perpetrators of the violence to be brought to justice,” it added.
Deranque, 23, was beaten on February 12 in Lyon by masked perpetrators during a fight and died two days later. Young men associated with the far-left group Młoda Gwardia, banned in 2025, are suspected of the murder. On Thursday, six men were charged with intentional murder, while the seventh, who is an assistant to far-left MP Raphael Arnault, was charged with complicity.
French President Emmanuel Macron appealed for calm on Saturday when over 3,000 people people joined a march in Lyon organized by far-right groups to pay tribute to Deranque.
“We reject any instrumentalization of the tragedy that plunged a French family into mourning for political purposes,” Barrot said.
He acknowledged that he also had other topics to discuss with the American ambassador, including the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on Thierry Breton, the former EU commissioner responsible for policing social media, and Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the International Criminal Court. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not indicate when the meeting with the representative of the US government would take place. (PAP)
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