LYON: French police will be out in force at a weekend rally for a slain far-right activist, the interior minister said on Friday, as the country seeks to contain anger over the fatal beating blamed on the hard left.
Quentin Deranque, 23, died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people on the sidelines of a protest against a politician from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party in the southeastern city of Lyon last week.
His death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year, in which the far-right National Rally (RN) party is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job.
President Emmanuel Macron — who is serving his last year in office — has said there was no place in France "for movements that adopt and legitimise violence" and urged the far right and hard left to clean up their act.
Deranque's supporters have called for a march in his memory on Saturday in Lyon.
The leftist mayor of Lyon asked the state to ban it, but Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declined to do so.
Nunez said he had planned an "extremely large police deployment" with reinforcements from outside the city to ensure security.
The rally is expected to be attended by 2,000 to 3,000 people and likely to see counter-protesters from the hard left.
"I can only ban a demonstration when there are major risks of public disorder and I am not in a position to contain them", he said.
"My role is to strike a balance between maintaining public order and freedom of expression".
Jordan Bardella, the president of anti-immigration RN, has urged party members not to go.
"We ask you, except in very specific and strictly supervised local situations... not to attend these gatherings nor to associate the National Rally with them", he wrote in a message sent to party officials.
LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard backed the mayor's call for a ban, warning on X it would be a "fascist demonstration" that "over 1,000 neo-Nazis from all over Europe" were expected to attend.
Two people, aged 20 and 25, have been charged with intentional homicide in relation to Deranque's fatal beating, according to the Lyon prosecutor and their lawyers.
A third suspect has been charged with complicity in the killing.
Jacques-Elie Favrot, a 25-year-old former parliamentary assistant to LFI lawmaker Raphael Arnault, has admitted to having been present at the scene but denied delivering the blows that killed Deranque, his attorney said.
Favrot said "it was absolutely not an ambush, but a clash with a group of far-right activists", he added.
Italy's hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday said the killing of Deranque was "a wound for all of Europe".
Reacting to her comments, Macron said everyone should "stay in their own lane", but Meloni later said that Macron had misinterpreted her comments. — AFP
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