A national political row has been ignited by the death of a right-wing activist last week near a conference held by a far-left politician risks spilling over into further violence.
The 23-year-old, named only as Quentin D by media authorities, died in hospital on Saturday after sustaining injuries during an encounter in Lyon on Thursday (February 12).
He died after reportedly being ambushed by far-left activists at an event near the Lyon Sciences Po university, where La France Insoumise MEP Rima Hassan was hosting a political conference.
According to far-right feminist group Nemesis Collective, Quentin was acting as a member of the security personnel for groups protesting against the event, and was ambushed by around 30 far-left activists near a tabac close to the protest site.
Nemesis Collective claims the activists that attacked Quentin, some of whom were reportedly armed and were wearing face masks to hide their identity, belonged to the ‘Jeune Garde’, a hard-left militant group officially banned in France in June 2025.
Quentin’s parents later said through a lawyer that he was “neither a security guard nor a member of any kind of security service.”
Following the incident, a spate of political violence against the far-left La France Insoumise has been recorded, including offices being sprayed with paint and activists targeted.
An investigation into his death is now underway.
Calls for calm as tensions rise
Quentin’s death quickly gained national media attention, with several figures across the political spectrum highlighting the incident.
This included French President Emmanuel Macron, who said the student was “the victim of an unprecedented outburst of violence.”
“In the Republic, no cause, no ideology will ever justify killing”.
“On the contrary, the entire purpose of our institutions is to civilise debate and protect the free expression of arguments…. Hatred that kills has no place in our society,” he said in a post on X.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez called for prefectures to provide greater security at political events and gatherings “to prevent any disturbance to public order and guarantee the safety of people and property.”
"This event calls for continued extreme vigilance regarding demonstrations, gatherings, meetings, and conferences of a political, ideological, and opinion-based nature, particularly in the current pre-election context,” he added.
Tensions have been fuelled by far-right commentators, including Rassemblement National figurehead Marine Le Pen.
“The unfathomable pain of losing a child must not be followed by the unbearable impunity of the barbarians responsible for this lynching. It will be up to the justice system to judge and condemn this criminal act of unprecedented violence with the utmost rigor,” she said on X.
For his part, La France Insoumise MP Raphaël Arnault – a former member of the Jeune Garde group before it was banned – offered condolences.
“I offer my condolences to the family of this young man and I hope that the truth will be uncovered about this tragedy…What I have feared for years in Lyon is continuing,” he said.
Mr Arnault’s parliamentary assistant Jacques-Elie Favrot will step down during the investigation into Quentin’s death, following allegations of his involvement which his lawyers deny.
Is France at risk of political violence?
Current Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said “violent political rhetoric leads to physical violence… It was clearly the far left that killed [Quentin],” in a media appearance on Sunday (February 15), despite the investigation into the death still ongoing.
“There are political discourses, particularly those of La France Insoumise and the far left, which unfortunately lead to unbridled violence, both on social media and in the real world.”
The Minister said he “always denounced [political violence]… from the far left, the far right, survivalist movements, masculinist movements.”
“I think there is a complacency on the part of LFI and extreme parties in general towards political violence,” he added, but said authorities had not ‘underestimated’ the threat of far-left violence in France.
France is often seen as politically polarised at both ends of the spectrum – a perception rooted partly in its turbulent and sometimes violent history, and in the comparatively greater acceptance of fringe parties within mainstream politics than in many other European countries.
In the 21st century, traditional axes of disagreement between the far-right and far-left have been heightened by global issues and conflicts including that between Israel and Palestine.
Rima Hassan is an outspoken critic of Israel, and was arrested by Israeli authorities for her participation in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in June 2025. She is often accused of anti-semitism by the far-right.
There are concerns of wider violence during the run-up to the 2027 presidential election, with both La France Insoumise and Rassemblement National set to be among the leading parties.
The far-right party has the single-largest number of MPs in the current Assemblée nationale at 122, with La France Insoumise third with 72.
