PARIS, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Four people, including an aide to a French hard-left lawmaker, have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the killing of a far-right activist that has jolted the country’s political class, a police source said on Tuesday.
Quentin Deranque, 23, died on Saturday after he was beaten to death by hard-left activists outside a conference in Lyon given by Rima Hassan, a far-left member of the European Parliament. Videos of the deadly fight were widely shared on social media.
Although conflicts between the hard left and far right are common in France, Deranque’s killing has laid bare some of the broader political tensions in a country reeling from nearly two years of institutional crises.
It has also hardened views towards the extreme-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, while allowing the far right to portray itself as a victim of political violence.
Among those arrested was a parliamentary assistant to LFI lawmaker Raphael Arnault, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Arnault did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Speaking on social media, LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon called for calm. “Let’s not fuel the incitement to take the law into one’s own hands,” he said.
On Monday, Lyon prosecutor Thierry Dran said a murder probe had been opened into Deranque’s killing, which has led to widespread condemnation of the LFI.
Jordan Bardella, party president of the far-right National Rally, said Mélenchon had “opened the doors of the National Assembly to presumed murderers.”
After Deranque’s killing, French President Emmanuel Macron also appealed for calm.
(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Sophie Louise, Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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