Refuse political violence | EUROtoday

Lthe demise of Quentin Deranque, Saturday February 14, in Lyon, two days after he was hit throughout clashes between “two antagonistic groups”in response to the expression of the Minister of the Interior, sheds a harsh gentle on the political local weather of our nation. No one in France must be fearful, not to mention lose their life, for his or her opinions. The easy undeniable fact that it’s essential to recall this basis of a democratic society and civil peace is alarming.

A far-right activist, the 23-year-old scholar was thrown to the bottom and hit by “at least six individuals” masked and hooded, Thursday, on the sidelines of a convention by MEP Rima Hassan (La France insoumise, LFI) in Lyon, the general public prosecutor mentioned on Monday. Neither the results of the post-mortem carried out on Monday, which studies “head injuries”, “beyond any therapeutic resource and fatal in the short term”nor the counts of “intentional homicide” and “violence aggravated by three circumstances: meeting, masked and carrying weapons”, on which the investigation was opened, leaves little question. Quentin Deranque was overwhelmed to demise.

Whoever or those that killed him not solely dedicated homicide, they, by resorting to the strategies of the fascists they declare to be combating, dirty the progressive and humanist struggles, and provided a martyr to their adversaries. Their scandalous gesture, dedicated within the identify of left-wing beliefs, should not make us neglect that the far proper consists of open supporters of violence, its trademark, and bitter enemies of democracy and the Republic. The identification of the perpetrators by investigators and their incrimination by the courts ought to make it potential to make clear their potential hyperlinks with political teams. The authorities designates the“ultraleft” and particularly the small group La Jeune Garde, created in Lyon in 2018 and near LFI.

Deadly lifeless ends

These occasions appear inseparable from the Lyon metropolitan space the place, for round fifteen years, the abuses of small far-right teams have sparked the mobilization of far-left activists. The rise in clashes, significantly in Old Lyon, was fueled by the lengthy refusal of the previous mayor, Gérard Collomb, to confront far-right activists. The persistent presence of id hooligans or neofascists within the wake of Olympique Lyonnais, whose former president, Jean-Michel Aulas, is now an opposition candidate for mayor of Lyon, has additionally contributed to this enhance in violence. More broadly, the coverage of “de-demonization” undertaken by Marine Le Pen had the mechanical impact of pushing among the most radical components of the National Rally in the direction of small teams; which strengthened the latter and provoked the mobilization of antifa in return.

One month earlier than the municipal elections, fourteen months earlier than a presidential election during which the specter of successful of the far proper hangs, whereas the manager is paralyzed by the lack of its majority and Parliament too typically presents a spectacle of dysfunction, the tragedy of Lyon additional darkens the political panorama and reinforces the necessity for a democratic upsurge. The rhetoric of “them or us”, the technique of chaos, inspired by the brutality of social networks and the immediacy of knowledge to a fragmented public opinion, are lethal lifeless ends. Resorting to violence is enjoying into the fingers of those that wish to destroy democracy, a perfect exactly designed to free societies from violence.