17 Is the far left about to replace the far right as the pariah of French politics?
The question is inescapable following the killing in Lyon of nationalist student Quentin Deranque by suspected far-left militants.
Deranque was killed on 12 February after a small university protest by far-right feminists, who he was supposed to be protecting.
Mobile phone footage shows him being repeatedly kicked and punched on the ground by masked and hooded young men. He died of head injuries.
Since then a torrent of condemnation has come down on the main party on the radical left, La France Insoumise, and on its leader, veteran firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon. LFI – or France Unbowed – has a bloc of some 70 MPs in the 577-member National Assembly.
The seven suspects now charged in connection with the killing were all members of, or close to, an organisation called La Jeune Garde (The Young Guard) which used to provide security for LFI before it was banned last year.
One of the suspects – Jacques-Elie Favrot – was the salaried parliamentary assistant of an LFI deputy, Raphaël Arnault, who set up The Young Guard in 2018.
Favrot has been charged with “complicity to murder by instigation”, not with delivering the blows that killed Deranque.
But Adrian Besseyre – who according to his lawyer also worked in Arnault’s team at the National Assembly – is one of those charged with murder.
All the suspects deny any intention to kill, according to the investigating magistrate. Two refused to talk, he said, while the others admitted being at the scene, and some admitted inflicting blows.For the past 50 years it was a constant accepted by most of the French political establishment that the party to be ostracised for its links to extremism lay at the other end of the political spectrum: the National Front, and its successor the National Rally (RN).
What has happened in the last 10 days could be turning that nostrum on its head – completing the “de-demonisation” of the RN so fervently pursued by its leader Marine Le Pen, and making new “demons” out of the radical left.
The implications on future elections in France – and on who eventually comes to power – could be profound.
From diametrically opposing points of view, the RN and LFI both reject the consensus that has governed France for the last 50 years.
With its nationalist traditions, the RN promotes the interests of French citizens over immigrants, and takes a tough line on crime which it links with some immigrant communities. True to its Marxist roots, LFI defends a working class which it sees as now being mainly of immigrant origin.
On economic matters the two parties are not a million miles apart. But on touchstone “identity” issues, there is mutual hatred.
On Gaza, LFI refused to condemn the deadly Hamas-led 7 October attacks on Israel, while RN – for all its antisemitic past – sides increasingly with Israel.
For the past 50 years it was a constant accepted by most of the French political establishment that the party to be ostracised for its links to extremism lay at the other end of the political spectrum: the National Front, and its successor the National Rally (RN).
What has happened in the last 10 days could be turning that nostrum on its head – completing the “de-demonisation” of the RN so fervently pursued by its leader Marine Le Pen, and making new “demons” out of the radical left.
The implications on future elections in France – and on who eventually comes to power – could be profound.
From diametrically opposing points of view, the RN and LFI both reject the consensus that has governed France for the last 50 years.
With its nationalist traditions, the RN promotes the interests of French citizens over immigrants, and takes a tough line on crime which it links with some immigrant communities. True to its Marxist roots, LFI defends a working class which it sees as now being mainly of immigrant origin.
On economic matters the two parties are not a million miles apart. But on touchstone “identity” issues, there is mutual hatred.
On Gaza, LFI refused to condemn the deadly Hamas-led 7 October attacks on Israel, while RN – for all its antisemitic past – sides increasingly with Israel. ago
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