PARIS (AP) — France will summon U.S. Ambassador Charles Kushner to protest comments by the Trump administration over the beating death of a far-right activist, the foreign affairs minister said.
Jean-Noel Barrot was reacting to a statement by the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, which posted on X that “reports, corroborated by the French Minister of the Interior, that Quentin Deranque was killed by left-wing militants, should concern us all.”
Deranque, a far-right activist, died of brain injuries last week from a beating in the French city of Lyon. He was attacked during a fight on the margins of a student meeting where a far-left lawmaker, Rima Hassan, was a keynote speaker.
His killing highlighted a climate of deep political tensions ahead of next year’s presidential vote. French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm on Saturday as some 3,000 people joined a march in Lyon organized by far-right groups to pay tribute to Deranque.
“We reject any instrumentalization of this tragedy, which has plunged a French family into mourning, for political ends,” Barrot said. “We have no lessons to learn, particularly on the issue of violence, from the international reactionary movement.”
The State Department said in its post that “violent radical leftism is on the rise and its role in Quentin Deranque’s death demonstrates the threat it poses to public safety. We will continue to monitor the situation and expect to see the perpetrators of violence brought to justice.”
Seven people have been handed preliminary charges. The Lyon public prosecutor’s office requested that each of them be charged with intentional homicide, aggravated violence and criminal conspiracy. Six of the accused were charged on all three counts. The seventh was charged with complicity in intentional homicide, aggravated violence and criminal conspiracy.
Barrot said he has other topics to discuss with Kushner, including U.S. decisions to impose sanctions on Thierry Breton, a former EU commissioner responsible for supervising social media rules, and Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the International Criminal Court.
Barrot said both are targeted by “unjustified and unjustifiable” sanctions.
Kushner was asked to attend a meeting at the foreign affairs ministry scheduled on Monday evening, according to diplomatic sources. He had already been summoned in August last year over his letter to Macron alleging the country did not do enough to combat antisemitism. France’s foreign officials met with a representative of the U.S. ambassador since the diplomat did not show up.