LYON: More than 3,200 people marched through the French city of Lyon on Saturday to honor Quentin Deranque, a nationalist activist killed following a street brawl with alleged far-left militants.
Deranque, a 23-year-old mathematics student and member of the identitarian group Audace Lyon, died on February 14 from head injuries sustained two days earlier in a fight with left-wing activists as he was acting as informal security for protesters from the right-wing women’s group Nemesis.
His death caused an uproar across France, with Interior Minister Laurent Nunez describing the tragedy as “a deliberate homicide” and “a lynching.” Eleven individuals have been arrested, with some having links to the left-wing collective Jeune Garde. Two of those arrested were parliamentary assistants to Raphael Arnault, an MP from the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party.