Behind large portraits of Quentin Deranque and under heavy police surveillance, more than 3,000 people, including many ultra-right activists, marched in Lyon on Saturday, demanding "justice" for their "comrade", beaten to death by members of the ultra-left. The Rhône prefecture announced that it intended to take legal action over Nazi salutes as well as racist and homophobic insults detected during the march.

Published on: 02/21/2026 - 04:47 Modified on: 02/22/2026 - 11:49

In the crowd, there were no organizational flags or acronyms. But identity and nationalist symbols, and even some Nazi salutes and homophobic and racist insults, according to the prefecture which announced that it was going to take legal action.

Thousands of people marched on Saturday February 21 in Lyon to pay tribute to identity activist Quentin Deranque, beaten to death on February 12 by ultra-left activists.

At the head of the procession, young women members of the Némésis identity collective hold white roses. “The far left kills” signs sit alongside tricolor flags. “Young Guard in prison, free the city of Lyon,” protesters chanted.

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Seven young men, suspected of having participated in the violence against Quentin Deranque on February 12, were indicted Thursday for intentional homicide and complicity, including two assistants of the LFI deputy and founder of the Young Guard Raphaël Arnault.

To avoid any violence, the Ministry of the Interior and the Rhône prefecture had deployed a substantial security system. CRS reinforcements, mobile police and two drones monitor the crowd.

Read also Attacked after the death of Quentin Deranque, LFI continues its campaign near Lyon “vigilantly”

“The street is ours”

“We will not tolerate the slightest incident within the procession”, nor “on the sidelines of this march”, warned the prefect of Rhône, Fabienne Buccio, explaining that vigilance would continue “into the evening” in order to prevent possible street battles.

According to his services, the procession numbered 3,200 people (3,500 for the organizers). Around 500 others marched in Rennes, Brest or Saint-Brieuc.

The president of Némésis, Alice Cordier, was present, as well as other identity activists. At the microphone, one of them, Raphaël Ayma, castigated “the system that killed Quentin” and called for “continuing the fight”. At the end of the procession, “The street is ours” rang out.

Around 6 p.m., the march reached the street where Quentin Deranque was beaten after a clash between ultra-left and ultra-right activists, on the sidelines of a conference by LFI MEP Rima Hassan.

A large black banner reading “Farewell Comrade” accompanied by a Chrism, a Christian symbol from Roman times that has become a marker of the ultra-right, was unfurled, before the crowd began to disperse. According to the prefecture, only one person was arrested, at the end of the procession, for "carrying weapons" (a knife and a hammer).

“I don't want Lyon to be the capital of the ultra-right, at any time,” previously declared the city's environmentalist mayor, Grégory Doucet, who had pleaded in vain for the march to be banned.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez explained that he had weighed the risk of “violence” and “disturbances to public order” in the light of the necessary “freedom of expression”.

The march took place peacefully. But the Rhône prefecture announced at the end of the day that it intended to take legal action over Nazi salutes as well as racist and homophobic insults detected in Lyon during the tribute.

These gestures and declarations were spotted on videos of the march, posted online on social networks, said a spokesperson for the prefecture.

“In accordance with the instructions of the Minister of the Interior”, prefect Fabienne Buccio will report “to the public prosecutor all reprehensible gestures and remarks” detected, he added.

Tribute in a traditionalist church

On Saturday morning, President Emmanuel Macron called "everyone to calm down" and announced that the government would meet next week to discuss "violent action groups". This meeting will take place on Tuesday, the Élysée said in the evening.

Emmanuel Macron wants to "hide his moral responsibility (...) in the explosion of far-left violence", reacted the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella.

The day before, he had asked members of the RN not to go to the Lyon march. “We have no direct or distant links with ultra-right organizations,” he assured. An assistant to an RN deputy was, however, seen in the procession by AFP.

Senator LR from Rhône Etienne Blanc also came, “in a personal capacity”. Quentin Deranque "is a Catholic, practicing, undoubtedly conservative, nationalist, he loves his country and it costs him his life", "that is more than questioning", he explained to AFP.

At 2 p.m., a tribute was also paid to Quentin Deranque in the traditionalist Saint-Georges church, whose services are said in Latin and which the young man attended.

The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, whose executive is LR, for its part displayed a large portrait of the young man on its facade.

According to local media, the funeral of Quentin Deranque must take place on Tuesday in the strictest privacy, information that the deceased's relatives did not want to confirm to AFP.

With AFP

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