The beating death of a young activist in France last week has spiraled into a bitter war of words between far-right and far-left leaders, offering a preview of the tensions that could erupt in France as it girds for a presidential election next year.
Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old described by a far-right group as one of its own, died on Saturday, two days after being attacked in Lyon. Eleven people have been arrested, including two aides to a lawmaker from a far-left party, France Unbowed.
That has prompted thunderous condemnations of the far left by far-right leaders, including Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally party. The intense political jockeying comes a month before local elections in which both the far left and far right stand a chance of making landmark gains, and a year before a national election to replace President Emmanuel Macron. Mr. Bardella, who holds a lead in the presidential polls, could face off against a far-left candidate in that contest.
“The far left has killed,” Mr. Bardella said in a TV interview on Wednesday. He characterized Mr. Deranque’s death as a “turning point” and placed the underlying blame at the feet of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of France Unbowed, citing that party’s links to a banned antifascist group that some French officials say was involved in the attack.
Mr. Mélenchon rejected that accusation, saying France Unbowed deplored violence. While he acknowledged his party’s links to the group, La Jeune Garde, or the Young Guard, he said the party did not give it any orders. The lawmaker whose aides were arrested said he had moved to dismiss one of them.
“It is we who are being attacked,” Mr. Mélenchon said at a campaign rally in Montpellier, in southern France.
For the National Rally — a populist party that has spent years trying to shake off a legacy of xenophobia and antisemitism dating back to its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was convicted several times of inciting racial hatred — it is an opportunity to paint its leftist rival as a lawless party, unfit to govern France.
“It is a way to criminalize your political opponent,” said Philippe Marlière, a professor of French and European politics at University College London. France Unbowed has a leftist agenda, he said, but it is hardly the “Red Brigades of the 1970s,” the militant leftist group behind several violent attacks in Italy.
Still, the deadly assault in Lyon has thrown Mr. Mélenchon, a veteran, but polarizing, politician who finished third in the presidential election in 2022, on his heels. On Wednesday, a bomb threat forced the evacuation of his party’s headquarters in Paris.
The French government has also condemned France Unbowed in the aftermath of the death, with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu demanding that its leaders clean house. Mr. Mélenchon responded that “we do not accept the lessons given to us by the prime minister,” adding that Mr. Lecornu had “clearly lost it.”
The chain of events leading up to the attack on Mr. Deranque, a data science student, is somewhat ambiguous. On Thursday, he joined a volunteer security detail for a feminist far-right group, Némésis, according to its leader, Alice Cordier. The group was protesting outside a conference that focused on the European Union and the war in Gaza. It featured as a guest speaker Rima Hassan, a French far-left lawmaker with Palestinian roots who is a member of France Unbowed.
At some point, violence erupted in the streets outside. Le Canard Enchaîné, the French satirical and investigative paper, posted footage of two groups skirmishing on a street corner in Lyon, where the conference was held. The groups appeared roughly the same in numbers, with both sides spoiling for a fight.
Separate footage of the later attack on Mr. Deranque showed multiple people throwing him to the ground and kicking him repeatedly, as he lay on a sidewalk. Mr. Deranque attempted to walk home after the attack but collapsed and was taken to the hospital, with a severe head injury, the city’s prosecutor said. He died two days later.
Political analysts noted that battles between the far right and far left were common in France, dating back to protests against the Vietnam War. Israel’s war in Gaza has become a new flashpoint and the looming elections have added another combustible factor.
“It’s a kind of conjunction of two elements,” said Marc Lazar, an emeritus professor of history at Sciences Po in Paris. “This is a process of polarization and radicalization between these two groups.”
Speaking at a news briefing on Wednesday, Mr. Bardella called for the imposition of a “cordon sanitaire” around France Unbowed, essentially barring the party from government by keeping it out of any coalition. That is the strategy that other mainstream parties have used to keep the far right out of government.
The irony was inescapable. Asked by a journalist if he believed that the far left had replaced his own party as the isolated one, Mr. Bardella said, “I am not a political historian, I leave you to your analysis.”
Ségolène Le Stradic and Ana Castelain contributed reporting
Mark Landler is the Paris bureau chief of The Times, covering France, as well as American foreign policy in Europe and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades.
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