{"id":309997,"date":"2026-02-21T14:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T14:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/309997\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T14:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T14:56:11","slug":"macron-urges-calm-ahead-of-march-for-far-right-activist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/309997\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron urges calm ahead of march for far-right activist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>French President \u2060Emmanuel Macron has called for calm ahead of nationwide rallies planned in memory of \u200ca \u2060far-right activist killed last week.<\/p>\n<p>The marches are for Quentin Deranque, \u200c23, who was beaten to \u2060death in \u200ca fight that was caught \u2060on \u200ccamera and shocked the nation.<\/p>\n<p>Police are concerned \u2060the marches could turn \u2060violent, with clashes between opposing extremist political groups.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Macron said his government would hold a meeting to discuss &#8220;violent action groups&#8221; in the wake of the killing, which has ignited tensions between the left and right ahead of the 2027 presidential vote.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Deranque died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people on the sidelines of a demonstration against a politician from the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party in the southeastern city of Lyon last week.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a farming trade fair in Paris, Mr Macron urged &#8220;everyone to remain&#8221; calm ahead of the rally for Mr Deranque in Lyon, which is set to go ahead under high security despite Lyon&#8217;s left-wing green mayor asking the state to ban it.<\/p>\n<p>The rally is expected to be attended by 2,000 to 3,000 people, and likely to see counter-protesters from the hard left.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Flowers are seen placed beside garage doors\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0023ee52-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nThe words LFI KILLS painted in red next to flowers at the site of the fatal attack on Quentin Deranque<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the Republic, no violence is legitimate,&#8221; said Mr Macron, who will be unable to contest next year&#8217;s election after hitting the two-term limit. &#8220;There is no place for militias, no matter where they come from.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Having urged both the far right and hard left to clean up their acts, the president said his administration would hold a meeting next week &#8220;take stock of violent action groups which are active and have links with political parties of any description&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Deranque&#8217;s death has provoked a reaction from US President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration, with state department official Sarah Rogers yesterday branding the killing &#8220;terrorism&#8221; and claiming that &#8220;violent radical leftism is on the rise&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday called Mr Deranque&#8217;s death &#8220;a wound for all Europe&#8221;, prompting Mr Macron to urge the far-right leader to stay out of French matters.<\/p>\n<p>Six men suspected of involvement in the fatal assault have been charged over the killing, while a parliamentary assistant to a radical left-wing MP has also been charged with complicity.<\/p>\n<p>A far-right collective called Nemesis, which claims to &#8220;defend Western women&#8221; from the violence allegedly wrought by immigrants, said Mr Deranque had been at the protest in Lyon to protect its members when he was assaulted by &#8220;anti-fascist&#8221; activists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French President \u2060Emmanuel Macron has called for calm ahead of nationwide rallies planned in memory of \u200ca \u2060far-right&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-309997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}