Thousands of people took to the streets Lyon in France on Saturday to protest against the alleged Antifa mob killing of a conservative Catholic student earlier this month.
Seven people have so far been charged over the killing of 23-year-old conservative student Quentin Deranque, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after being beaten by multiple people on the sidelines of a protest against MEP Rima Hassan of the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party at the Sciences Po university in Lyon.
According to the local Le Progrès newspaper, most of the suspects “are known to be either members of, or close to” the Young Guard Antifa cell in Lyon founded by LFI MP Raphaël Arnault in 2018. Among those charged are Jacques-Elie Favrot, a parliamentary assistant to Arnault, and Adrian Besseyre, who also previously worked for the far-left lawmaker.
The killing has sparked national outrage and broad condemnation of the far-left in France. On Saturday, a demonstration, “Justice for Quentin”, was held in Lyon. According to the local government, at least 3,200 people joined the protest.
This comes despite National Rally leader Jordan Bardella advising his party to refrain from joining any demonstrations. Protests were also held in Rennes, Brest, Saint-Brieuc, and Châteauroux on Saturday.
Those present in Lyon were heard chanting “LFI complicit, Antifa murderers” and “Young Guard in prison, free the city of Lyon.” Some were seen carrying a banner reading “The far left kills.”
Members of the local branch of Collectif Némésis, an anti-migration identitarian feminist group whom Quentin was providing protection for at the time of his attack, joined the march. One told Le Figaro that they came to “pay tribute to Quentin because he protected us; it’s important for us to come and express our gratitude and our sadness.”
Another participant told the paper said that she came to the demonstration to “show Quentin’s family that we support them: what they are going through is horrible, no one should die for their beliefs in France.”
When asked if she was concerned with marching alongside so-called far-right groups, she said: “I don’t know what ‘far right’ means. It’s a label they just throw at us, but the people on the other side are ignorant. They call us fascists when they don’t even know what it really means!”
The protest came despite calls from the Green Party mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, to cancel the march over the “arrival of individuals likely to commit violence” into the city. The leftist politician complained that he did not want “Lyon to be the capital of the far-right.”
Despite the supposed concerns from the Green mayor, the demonstration concluded largely without incident, even with some Antifa-supporting counter demonstrators heckling the march. At the end of the protest, activists unfurled a banner reading “farewell comrade” and sang a rendition of La Marseillaise, the national anthem of France.
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