On the night of February 12, 2026, in Lyon, the death of a 23-year-old student, Quentin Derranque, following attacks suffered during political clashes, transformed a criminal episode into a disturbing symbol of the climate of radicalization in France. According to known elements, the young man belonged to an extreme right-wing group and was attacked when he was isolated, with the presumed perpetrators being militants from the extreme left-wing Jeune Garde group. The judicial investigation continues, but the case has already taken on a political dimension and exposed uncomfortable links between street activism and party structures.
Among these connections, the trajectory of Raphaël Arnault stands out, co-founder of this group Jeune Garde (created in Lyon with the aim of combating the extreme right on the streets) and elected deputy in 2024 for the insoumise La France movement, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
This group has been referred to in court cases and complaints related to violent clashes, including convictions for group violence, involving its declared members of what many call the “armed wing of the La France Insoumise movement”. Perhaps for this reason, although never openly acknowledged, Mélenchon and his party publicly opposed the dissolution of this organization, decreed by the French government in 2025, invoking freedom of association and defending the legitimacy of the anti-fascist mobilization.
This case about the lynching of this student, at a time when he was alone and without his group, raises serious questions from several perspectives, but we want to highlight the following: the ambiguity of political sectors in the face of movements that, although they present themselves as ideological militants, maintain a history of physical confrontation. Speeches that call for the combative mobilization of young supporters can, even when formulated in political language, contribute to legitimizing a culture of militant antagonism.
If this is, rightly, widely condemned by the press whenever neo-Nazi or far-right groups are at stake, it becomes at least strange that, when events involve far-left groups, silence or only superficial references are observed on the part of the national media. In matters of violence there is not, and cannot be, one that is reprehensible and another that is not, depending on the proximity to our ideals or ideological sympathies.
The death in Lyon should serve as a clear warning. Whenever leaders, whether from the extreme left or the extreme right, tolerate, relativize or inflame rhetoric of hostility, they create fertile ground for militants or their supporters to convert conviction into violence.
Criminal responsibility belongs to those who attack; moral and political responsibility also belongs to those who, through speech, example or thought, shape attitudes. In a time of increasing radicalization, verbal restraint and a sense of State are not optional virtues: they are democratic duties. And we should all understand that.
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