{"id":782695,"date":"2026-02-23T01:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T01:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/782695\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T01:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T01:50:13","slug":"french-police-arrest-11-after-a-far-right-student-dies-after-a-beating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/782695\/","title":{"rendered":"French police arrest 11 after a far-right student dies after a beating"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS (AP) \u2014 French police investigating the beating of a far-right militant who died of brain injuries have arrested 11 people, prosecutors said Wednesday, in a case adding fuel to long-standing divides in French<\/a> politics ahead of presidential elections in 2027.<\/p>\n

Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old student described as a fervent nationalist, died in a hospital on Saturday. He was beaten two days earlier by a group of people in the city of Lyon, in fighting that erupted between far-left and far-right supporters on the margins of a student meeting where a far-left lawmaker, Rima Hassan, was a keynote speaker.<\/p>\n

An autopsy found that Deranque suffered a fractured skull and fatal brain injuries, according to Lyon\u2019s prosecutor, Thierry Dran. He launched the police investigation for homicide and other potential criminal charges. Dran\u2019s office said police detained a man and a woman on Wednesday morning, with nine other people taken into custody on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Hassan, a French-Palestinian who was born in a Syrian refugee camp, is a European Parliament lawmaker for the far-left France Unbowed party. In a post on X after the attack on Deranque but before he died of his injuries, Hassan expressed \u201chorror\u201d over the violence and condemned it.<\/p>\n

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Deranque\u2019s death triggered a storm of recriminations, mostly blaming France Unbowed. Its opponents accuse it of fomenting violence and tensions with its combative far-left politics, which include fierce criticism of Israel.<\/p>\n

The party is led by veteran hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon, a former Trotskyist who stood for the presidency in 2012, 2017 and 2022 and failed to advance to the decisive run-off round. He is preparing for another expected run next year, when President Emmanuel Macron<\/a> \u2018s second and last term ends.<\/p>\n

M\u00e9lenchon insisted Tuesday that France Unbowed bore no blame for the tragedy in Lyon, saying: \u201cWe have absolutely nothing to do, either directly or indirectly, with the death of this young Deranque.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the 11 people in police custody include the parliamentary aide of a France Unbowed lawmaker, French media reported. The lawmaker, Rapha\u00ebl Arnault, confirmed the aide\u2019s arrest in a post on X without giving the cause. Arnault said he is ending the aide\u2019s contract. <\/p>\n

Violence has long been a persistent feature<\/a> of French politics. Far-left and far-right factions harbor long-standing, intense and sometimes violent disregard for each other, although deaths in clashes between them have been rare in recent decades.<\/p>\n

France is holding municipal elections next month. With campaigning in full swing, opponents of France Unbowed on the right and far-right laid blame for Deranque\u2019s death on M\u00e9lenchon\u2019s party, accusing it of fueling violence and appealing to voters not to support it. <\/p>\n

Criticism also came from prominent figures on the left, including former French President Fran\u00e7ois Hollande. He said the mainstream left, including his Socialist Party, must not team up again with M\u00e9lenchon\u2019s party for the upcoming elections, as they did in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relationship with France Unbowed is over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 French police investigating the beating of a far-right militant who died of brain injuries have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[33,34,2000,299,36,16831,228236,4179,7147,33181,10039,51176,285,225629,228238,212683,105357,228237,263],"class_list":["post-782695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-elections","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-france-government","tag-franois-hollande","tag-general-news","tag-indictments","tag-jean-luc-melenchon","tag-lyon","tag-palestinian-territories-government","tag-politics","tag-quentin-deranque","tag-raphal-arnault","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-syria-government","tag-thierry-dran","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116117440177237770","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}