France to summon US ambassador over comments on slain far-right activist, foreign minister says
· France 24French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Sunday that he would summon the US ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, over comments on the killing of a French far-right activist last week.
"We are going to summon the United States ambassador to France, since the US embassy in France commented on this tragedy... which concerns the national community," Barrot told local media.
“We reject any instrumentalisation of this tragedy, which has plunged a French family into mourning, for political ends,” Barrot said. “We have no lessons to learn, particularly on the issue of violence, from the international reactionary movement.”
French far-right activist Quentin Deranque was beaten to death in a fight with alleged hard-left activists, in an incident that shocked the nation.
Deranque's killing highlighted a climate of deep political tensions ahead of next year’s presidential vote. French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm on Saturday as around 3,000 people joined a march in Lyon organised by far-right groups to pay tribute to Deranque.
Read moreMore than 3000 march in Lyon for slain far-right activist as Macron urges calm
The US Embassy in France and the US State Department's Bureau of Counterterrorism said they were monitoring the case, warning on X that "violent radical leftism was on the rise" and should be treated as a public safety threat.
Sarah Rogers, the US State Department under secretary for public diplomacy, said Deranque's killing showed "why we treat political violence – terrorism – so harshly".
"Once you decide to kill people for their opinions instead of persuade them, you've opted out of civilization," she wrote on X.
The administration of US President Donald Trump condemned the role of "violent radical leftism" in the case.
Last week, Deranque's killing caused a diplomatic feud between France and Italy, whose right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has warm ties with Trump.
Meloni called the killing "a wound for all of Europe", prompting Macron to criticise her for speaking on French domestic affairs.
Watch moreMacron asks Meloni not to 'comment' on France's affairs after activist remark
France is holding municipal elections next month and right-wing political forces have been using the incident to demonise the hard-left France Unbowed party (La France Insoumise, or LFI) led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Far-right National Rally leader Jordan Bardella has called for a common front against Mélenchon's party.
Read moreHow the death of far-right activist Quentin Deranque became France’s ‘Charlie Kirk moment’
Six men suspected of involvement in the fatal assault have been handed preliminary charges over the killing, while a parliamentary assistant to an LFI MP has also been charged with complicity.
Barrot on Sunday said he has other topics to discuss with Kushner, including US decisions to impose sanctions on Thierry Breton, a former EU commissioner responsible for supervising social media rules, and Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the International Criminal Court.
They have been targeted by “unjustified and unjustifiable” sanctions, Barrot said.
Macron also recently wrote to Trump to call for the lifting of “unfairly imposed sanctions” against several European citizens, including former Breton and Guillou, French weekly La Tribune Dimanche reported Sunday.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)