France to summon US envoy over remarks on far-right activist’s killing

WORLDWIDE:

France will summon the United States ambassador in Paris after American officials publicly commented on the killing of a far-right activist, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Sunday, escalating a diplomatic dispute that has unfolded amid rising political tensions in France.

According to France 24, Barrot said he would call in US Ambassador Charles Kushner after the US Embassy and senior State Department officials weighed in on last week’s fatal assault of Quentin Deranque, a French far-right activist.

“We are going to summon the United States ambassador to France, since the US embassy in France commented on this tragedy … which concerns the national community,” Barrot told local media in Paris.

“We reject any instrumentalisation of this tragedy, which has plunged a French family into mourning, for political ends. We have no lessons to learn, particularly on the issue of violence, from the international reactionary movement.”

Read This: Macron says US SC tariff ruling shows it is good to have counterweights to power

Deranque was beaten to death during a clash with alleged hard-left activists, in a case that has shocked France and intensified an already fraught political climate ahead of next year’s presidential election.

The US Embassy in France and the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism said they were monitoring the investigation, warning on social media that “violent radical leftism was on the rise” and should be treated as a public safety threat.

Sarah Rogers, the US undersecretary for public diplomacy, said the killing underscored why Washington treats political violence and terrorism “so harshly”, adding that choosing to “kill people for their opinions” amounted to opting “out of civilisation”.

President Donald Trump’s administration also condemned what it described as “violent radical leftism” in connection with the case.

The comments prompted a sharp reaction in Paris, where officials viewed the US statements as interference in a domestic criminal investigation and a sensitive political matter.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday called for calm as around 3,000 people joined a march in Lyon organised by far-right groups to pay tribute to Deranque. Authorities have charged six men with preliminary offences linked to the fatal assault. A parliamentary assistant to a lawmaker from La France Insoumise has also been charged with complicity.

The killing has quickly reverberated across Europe. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who maintains close ties with Trump, described the incident as “a wound for all of Europe”. Macron criticised her remarks as commentary on French domestic affairs, sparking a brief diplomatic spat between Paris and Rome.

In France, right-wing forces have seized on the case ahead of upcoming municipal elections, accusing the hard-left of fostering a climate of hostility. Jordan Bardella, head of the National Rally, has called for a united front against La France Insoumise and its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Read This: Australia expels Iran envoy over arson attacks

Barrot said his meeting with Kushner would also address broader tensions in US-French relations, including recent US sanctions targeting Thierry Breton, a former European commissioner responsible for social media regulation, and Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the International Criminal Court. Barrot described those measures as “unjustified and unjustifiable”.

According to French media reports, Macron recently wrote to Trump urging the lifting of what he called “unfairly imposed sanctions” against several European citizens, including Breton and Guillou.

The summoning of the US ambassador underscores the sensitivity of the case at a moment when political polarisation in France is deepening. With national elections looming and international scrutiny intensifying, the government appears determined to frame the killing as a domestic tragedy — not a geopolitical flashpoint.