French minister pledges tight security at rally for killed activist

Quentin Deranque, 23, died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people on the sidelines of a protest against a politician from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party in the southeastern city of Lyon last week.

His death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year, in which the far-right National Rally (RN) party is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job.

President Emmanuel Macron -- who is serving his last year in office -- has said there was no place in France "for movements that adopt and legitimise violence", and urged the far right and hard left to clean up their act.

Deranque's supporters have called for a march in his memory on Saturday in Lyon.

The leftist mayor of Lyon asked the state to ban it, but Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declined to do so.

Nunez said he had planned an "extremely large police deployment" with reinforcements from outside the city to ensure security.

The rally is expected to be attended by 2,000 to 3,000 people, and likely to see counter-protesters from the hard left.

"I can only ban a demonstration when there are major risks of public disorder and I am not in a position to contain them," he told the RTL broadcaster.

"My role is to strike a balance between maintaining public order and freedom of expression."
'Fascist demonstration'
Jordan Bardella, the president of anti-immigration RN, has urged party members not to go.

"We ask you, except in very specific and strictly supervised local situations ... not to attend these gatherings nor to associate the National Rally with them," he wrote in a message sent to party officials and seen by AFP.

LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard backed the mayor's call for a ban, warning on X it would be a "fascist demonstration" that "over 1,000 neo-Nazis from all over Europe" were expected to attend.

Two people, aged 20 and 25, have been charged with intentional homicide in relation to Deranque's fatal beating, according to the Lyon prosecutor and their lawyers.

A third suspect has been charged with complicity in the killing.

Jacques-Elie Favrot, a 25-year-old former parliamentary assistant to LFI lawmaker Raphael Arnault, has admitted to having been present at the scene but denied delivering the blows that killed Deranque, his attorney said.

Favrot said "it was absolutely not an ambush, but a clash with a group of far-right activists", he added.
'Charlie Kirk moment'
Italy's hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday said the killing of Deranque was "a wound for all of Europe".

Reacting to her comments, Macron said everyone should "stay in their own lane", but Meloni later said that Macron had misinterpreted her comments.

Opinion polls put the far right in the lead for the French presidency in 2027, when Macron will have to step down after the maximum two consecutive terms in office.

In snap parliamentary polls in 2024, Macron's supporters and the left, including the hard left, had allied against the far right.

After the Lyon killing, several voices on the more moderate left have rejected another such alliance with LFI.

Socialist party official Pierre Jouvet on Friday however said its politicians could in rare cases ally with LFI candidates in the second round of municipal elections next month if they reject "political violence".

Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin late Thursday warned against what he described as France's "Charlie Kirk moment", referring to an ultraconservative activist who was shot and killed in September in the United States.

"It's a moment aimed at delegitimising part of the political spectrum and casting the triumphant far right as a victim," the moderate right-winger wrote on X.

"Let's stay vigilant. Let's not concede ground to the far right."

burs-ah/rmb