Eleven arrested over death of French far-right activist in Lyon as LFI comes under fire

Euronews · Feb 18, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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Eleven people have been arrested in connection with the violent brawl that led to the death of far-right activist Quentin Deranque in Lyon, sparking claims it was caused by unchecked far-left violence in France. Six are suspected of taking part in the attack and three of providing support, with an additional two now among the suspects, a source close to the case said. Among those arrested is an assistant to left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) MP Raphaël Arnault, who announced that he had initiated “procedures to terminate his contract”. “As stated in a statement by his lawyer, my collaborator Jacques-Elie Favrot has ceased all parliamentary activities,” Arnault wrote in a post on X on Tuesday evening, stressing that the investigation “will have to determine responsibility”. The 23-year-old activist died on Saturday after suffering a concussion in an attack in Lyon last Thursday while attempting to disrupt a lecture given by LFI MEP Rima Hassan. The identitarian group Nemesis, which claims to fight against violence towards Western women, asserts that Deranque was part of the security team responsible for protecting protesters attending Hassan’s lecture at the Sciences Po university. The lawyer representing the family of the activist involved with Action française, an extremist royalist movement, has denied this version of events. French newspaper Le Canard enchaîné published a video of the violent clash between the two groups that preceded the assault on Deranque. “It shows that both groups came prepared to fight,” the weekly wrote. LFI under fire Since Deranque’s death, LFI has come under fire from across the political spectrum, while French Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste announced that there will be no university meetings if there is a proven risk of public disorder. Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI group in the National Assembly, denounced a decision she considers an exploitation of the activist’s death. “This means that, behind the scenes, it will be enough for far-right groups to exert pressure at each of our demonstrations, meetings, and lectures for all our events to be cancelled,” she said. “And I would like to remind everyone that it is the government’s responsibility to take measures to ensure democratic conditions for political debate.” On Wednesday, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon called for the expulsion of MP Raphaël Arnault from his group in the National Assembly. “LFI must clean up its ranks, and I call on President Mathilde Panot to expel Raphaël Arnault from her group, or at least temporarily exclude him to mark this clarification, to say no to violence," Bregeon stated on FranceInfo. Meanwhile, François Hollande, former president and Socialist MP, said that there “cannot be, for the upcoming elections, any alliance between the Socialists and La France insoumise”. “LFI has failed to honour its commitments ... I consider the relationship with LFI to be over, it is broken,” he said on BFMTV. The party founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon quickly condemned the assault that led to Deranque’s death. “Everything has been manipulated and arranged to make it appear as though the Insoumis security team went on a mission to hunt down an unfortunate individual. [...] Death has no place in our practices or among our ranks. I have said dozens of times that we are hostile to and opposed to violence,” Mélenchon reiterated. Since Friday evening, several offices of LFI activists and elected officials, in cities such as Lille, Metz, Castres, Bordeaux, and Rouen, have been vandalised. On Wednesday, the party’s headquarters in Paris was “evacuated following a bomb threat”, said Manuel Bompart, coordinator of the movement. Lecornu calls on LFI to clean up its ranks Meanwhile, lawmakers observed a minute of silence on Tuesday afternoon in the French National Assembly in memory of the activist, while a march is scheduled for next Saturday in Lyon in his honour. While the government has singled out LFI and its youth branch “La Jeune Garde”, which was banned by the French government in 2025, the Lyon prosecutor refused on Monday to comment on these accusations, stating only that the incident is under investigation for voluntary homicide and deliberate assault. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who said he did not wish to “presage the outcome of the investigation or undermine the presumption of innocence”, called on LFI to clean up its ranks and urged all parties to reject political violence. “Either we fight and reject violence, or we do not fight it. There is no double standard. Fundamentally, there are not two weights and two measures. This applies to everyone, to each and every one.” he said.