Demanding a Firewall Against the Radical French Left

Ludovic Marin/Pool via AP

Over three thousand people of all ages marched in Lyon, France day before yesterday, in honor of twenty-three-year-old Catholic college student Quentin Deranque. The slight young man had been beaten to death by a savage Left-wing mob in the preceding week. He had been a volunteer security watch for a group of feminist counter-protestors outside a venue where radical pro-Palestinian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Rima Hassan was scheduled to speak.

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What happened last Thursday in Lyon?  Quentin Deranque died on Saturday, February 14. This 23-year-old student and nationalist activist was beaten on the sidelines of a conference given by MEP Rima Hassan at Sciences Po Lyon last Thursday. France Inter provides an update on the investigation and the circumstances surrounding the young man's death.

It all began in Lyon's 7th arrondissement, around 6 p.m. on Thursday, at the Institute of Political Studies. Rima Hassan, a member of the European Parliament from the La France Insoumise party, was there to give a lecture to students in a meeting-like atmosphere, but outside, far-right activists were protesting her presence. These were members of the identitarian collective Némésis, accompanied by about fifteen men who had come to provide security; Quentin Dranque was a member of this group.

...The beginning of the confrontation was chaotic, but its end clearly resembled  a brutal beating . Several residents witnessed the scene and spoke to us, like Maxime: "When I was at home on the third floor, I saw them coming from the street. I didn't know who they were, but they were shouting 'fascist, Nazi, they're fascists, they're Nazis.' I saw a guy get beaten up by a group of men dressed in black with masks." Maxime filmed from his balcony. In the footage, about ten people can be seen attacking two men on the ground, one of whom is lying motionless, having been punched and kicked repeatedly.

Who is the Némésis Collective, the so-described 'ultra-far-right feminist group' that Deranque had volunteered to protect as they protested Hassan, a Thunberg Gaza float crony?

Gosh - they sound like crazy women. Or they would to any current, rabid American AWFL, as they are pro-women (real women), and pro-immigration control. 

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...Deranque was at the protest alongside the women of the Némésis Collective, founded in 2019 to defend the rights of Western women, partially against false doctrines that claim to support them while ignoring sexual violence of illegal immigrants across the continent...

No wonder they're such a trigger to out-of-control Leftists that they need bodyguards when they arrive to make their voices heard. Riley Gaines would understand.

...Hassan was the subject of protesters because she is seen by many as a representative of “Islamo-leftism”, a collaboration between the hard-left, Islamist organisations and groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of Hamas.

“We oppose Islamism because we believe it threatens women’s freedoms and French culture. Our banner read ‘Islamo-leftism out of our universities’,” Mathilda said.

So much so that they are now being accused by the Left of causing the murder of their friend...by the Left. 

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE US DO TO YOU - YOU MUST BE STOPPED

An activist from the right-wing feminist Némésis Collective has said the group’s members are “deeply traumatised” following the death of a 23-year-old man who was attacked after accompanying activists at a protest in Lyon.

...She noted that the young women were also violently attacked by the far-left during their protest, although not as badly as Deranque.

Among others targeted, one activist was gripped by the throat and thrown to the ground, resulting in 12 days of medically-certified time off work.

...Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party called for the dissolution of the Némésis Collective after the killing of Deranque.

“Even though it was one of his militants who killed Quentin, he is the one calling for our dissolution,” Mathilda said.

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It's an all-too-familiar pattern for all of us: the Left's immediate 'recasting' of the victim into the villain in the piece to cover violence or even mob executions simply for defending views that were mainstream - the yardstick for civilized behavior and society in the not-too-distant past.

...The pattern is familiar. The Left recasts views that were commonplace a short time ago as extremist and fascist. Their opponents are portrayed not as fellow citizens with whom one disagrees, but as existential threats to be neutralised. In that climate, violence becomes rationalised as defence. The line between protest and coercion blurs. The result is a corrosive cycle in which citizens self-censor for fear of their own lives, and their loved ones.

In Lyon, on Saturday morning, as the ineffectual French president called for calm, the city's mayor, Grégory Doucet, who'd wanted to ban the march, steamed as he was overruled by the interior minister Laurent Nuñez.

...French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm on Saturday morning ahead of the rallies and said he would hold a meeting with ministers on all violent groups next week.

Nuñez kept his promise of sufficient police presence, and, as the crowds gathered, there was no violence.

Thousands of people marched on Saturday in the French city of Lyon following the killing there of far-right activist Quentin Deranque, who was beaten to death last week by alleged hard-left activists in an incident that shocked the nation.

Many protesters wore surgical masks and sunglasses to cover their ‌faces and chanted “we are at home” and “antifa assassin”.

The local authority said it had reported Nazi salutes and racist insults recorded during the march to the prosecutor, following videos circulating on social media.

Police were concerned that the event in Lyon, where there is a concentration of both far-right and antifascist groups, would turn violent. Although ‌the march had largely dissipated by 8:00 p.m. (1900 GMT), increased law ⁠enforcement in the city will ⁠remain deployed throughout the night.

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THEY HAD A REAL WILL TO KILL HIM, I THINK

Lyon's mayor sounds so earnest, doesn't he? A real 'stop the violence' type

...Lyon mayor Gregory Doucet had attempted to ⁠stop the march from going ‌ahead. He told reporters on Saturday that he was worried about ⁠calls for French and European far-right groups to travel to Lyon for the ‌event.

We have fought against far-right violence during our term. We have managed to ⁠close down many premises, to shut down organisations because we know that certain individuals are violent and so we were worried,” he said.

But you can see from his own words, in his eyes there's only one kind of violence - RIGHT-WING violence.

And the more you find out about Lyon's mayor, you realize that mainstream, middle-of-the-road values, like being for immigration control or Catholic, have no place in his city with this man at the helm.

The Green Party mayor and his administration reportedly basically deputized Antifa and ultra-Left mad dogs at 'Jeune Garde,' an organization that was banned for violence, to run the opposition down, giving them free rein of City Hall resources for years to  'track right-wing' groups.

...Under the left-wing mayor Grégory Doucet, the Lyon city hall closely worked with Jeune Garde. 

The Deputy Mayor for Security Mohamed Chihi confirmed the collaboration in 2022 as part of the city’s “anti-fascist strategy.” 

It now also looks as if the group was given access to the city's video surveillance  to “track right-wing groups”

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Interesting about the confirmation.

City hall ties:-  In 2022, Deputy Mayor for Security Mohamed Chihi said the city worked with Jeune Garde and others on anti-extremist efforts against far-right groups in Vieux Lyon, including extra surveillance. The city denies any formal contracts, calling it routine association contacts no confirmed access to city cameras for the group.

These are the neo-Nazis the mayor and his Antifa toadies are persecuting.

Remnants of the outlawed Jeune Garde have friends in high places and are still operating with new identities.

...“Its former leader, Raphaël Arnault, is now an MP for La France Insoumise and has previous convictions for violence. The group was dissolved by interior minister Gérald Darmanin but its members continue under different names and are challenging the dissolution in court,” Mathilda said.

“The state is aware of their dangerousness. Arnault himself was under security surveillance. Yet he was still elected as an MP. In France, having a criminal record does not prevent someone from standing for election.

This statement should also ring a familiar bell about the Antifa members loyal to the Jeune Garde mother ship and their enablers.

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...“Many members of Jeune Garde come from privileged or bourgeois backgrounds, including children of civil servants, academics, or officials.

“We believe the French justice system is highly politicised. One in three judges belong to a syndicate that advocates prison abolition. Judges have great power and often deliver sentences that many French people consider too lenient.”

Which is why the head of Marine Le Pen's National Rally is calling for a firewall to be erected against the hard Left-wing parties in the French parliament.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the disgrace of the French Republic. I call for a sanitary cordon to be established against La France insoumise: they must be held accountable for their actions!

His is not the only voice finally reacting in shock and disgust.

After far-left militants beat conservative Catholic Quentin Deranque to death in Lyon, one of their members, Jacques-Élie Favrot, has been indicted for intentional murder, serious violence, and criminal association. His role and others in the far-left party La France Insoumise is leading to calls for a political “firewall,” usually reserved for the right, to be applied to the left in France.

Favrot is now in pre-trial detention for the barbaric murder of the 23-year-old victim, who was protecting the feminist activist group Collectif Némésis during a demonstration.

Favrot is a parliamentary assistant to far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) deputy Raphaël Arnault, who was the founder and leader of the extremist leftist militia Young Guard, which was dissolved by the French state.

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The Left is working overtime to turn the narrative around. They are so often successful, but I'm not sure that they will be this time.

Municipal elections are coming up next month, and a presidential election is scheduled for next year.

Smoothing this over is going to be a very difficult row to hoe, and the Left brutalizing their way out of it this time would be a very bad idea.

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David Strom 4:40 PM | February 23, 2026
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