French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, February 14, urged calm and restraint after the fatal beating of a 23-year-old French youth aligned with the far-right on the sidelines of a conference by a hard-left lawmaker in the southeastern city of Lyon.

The death of the young man – identified only as Quentin – has intensified tensions between France’s far-right and radical left who are both eyeing 2027 presidential elections.

He had been hospitalized in Lyon on Thursday after being attacked while providing what his supporters said was security for a protest against an appearance by hard-left MEP Rima Hassan at the Lyon branch of the Sciences Po university.

  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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    2 hours ago

    “Chill out, everybody calm down. Its was just a nazi, the fucker got what was coming to him.”

    The French have a proud tradition to maintain.

  • BestBouclettes@jlai.lu
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    5 hours ago

    We’re experiencing a wave of racist attacks and murders and the only thing they talk about is the attack where a fascist was killed.
    We don’t even know exactly what happened yet, most of the noise is coming from Nemesis another fascist “feminist” group.

    Coincidentally, our biggest leftist party was unilaterally labelled “far left” by our ministry of the interior a few days ago. (Le monde used hard left in the article, legally they are a generic leftist party)

    Coincidentally also, mayoral elections are in about 4 weeks, with an uptick from said party.

    Nothing to see here, France is definitely not sliding towards trumpism and fascism at a blinding speed.

  • Akh@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    His supporters say he was providing “security” - we all know the far-right lie 100% of the time, so he probably started a fight and lost his life.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Providing security in the way that Hitler’s people did in the early 30’s.

      By showing up in numbers, starting fights, and then claiming to be defending themselves. A tried-and-true Nazi propaganda tactic, and I’m glad the French aren’t standing for it.

  • comrade_twisty@feddit.org
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    9 hours ago

    Since when did European media start using Trumps term ‘radical-left’ ?

    There is no such thing, this is pure framing by the alt-right!

    Trump calls everyone from AOC to Angela Merkel radical leftists.

    • Riverside@reddthat.com
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      33 minutes ago

      Spaniard here: Podemos, a prominent leftist party that appeared in the 2010s as third political force, was categorized as radical since its inception by mainstream media. The party has almost disappeared now, mainly due to a plot by the state police and private media in which the police fabricated false investigations of funding by Venezuela and Iran (wonder why these two are always used as dogwhistles) and leaked them to the media to make a huge campaign of lawfare and manufacturing of public mistrust.

    • hector@lemmy.today
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      6 hours ago

      He calls biden and kamala radical left, it’s a meaningless term like anti semite, no accusation can be taken at face value.

    • lol_idk@piefed.social
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      7 hours ago

      The term alt-right is problematic too. I think you meant neo-nazis or just nazis

    • Tom Violence@lemmy.zip
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      9 hours ago

      I despise Trump’s propaganda as much as anyone here, but LFI (the party of the mentioned lawmaker) call themselves “radical left”.

      We shouldn’t let Trump turn this expression into an insult.

    • TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org
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      9 hours ago

      There is no such thing

      There damn well IS a such thing, I’m a radical leftist anarchist specifically. But you’re right in that regular liberals like AOC are not. “Radical” just means outside of mainstream political thought.

        • Ruxias@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          DSA, while not as left or “radical” as some on here, are already a political bloc in the US having meaningful impact. I support and celebrate their achievements even if I want more.

          So… You’re wrong.

          • SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world
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            6 hours ago

            The Democratic Socialists of America is a socialist political organization in the United States. It is the country’s largest socialist organization, with more than 100,000 members as of February 2026.

            As of August 2025, there are approximately 44.1 million registered Democrats across U.S. states

            There are approximately 37.4 million registered Republicans in states that track party affiliation

            I don’t think I am wrong.

            Leftists infighting about who is actually left enough is damaging to the movement.

            • Ruxias@lemmy.world
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              5 hours ago

              It is growing pains. This is the necessary hashing out of common thought among any political movement. There is much upset and confusion right now and people are examining the world through different eyes. People are shedding their pre-existing worldviews. So obviously there will be infighting and bickering, as our thoughts settle and coalesce.

              The broad statistical categorization of Dems and Repubs that you give doesn’t express the fact that there are smaller groups within those categories who are disagreeing with each other much the same as leftists do here. (e.g. “RINOs”, “never-Trumpers”, the “Tea Party” of recent history) A lot of their internal struggle is kept secret, as they already have fully-fledged parties with the resources and structure to herd their members on common lines. It’s not appropriate to compare open-format discussion online to the outward messaging of fully-realized parties.

              As I understand, there are DSA members who are within that “Democrat” label as well who are using the reach of that party to further spread leftist messages. The statistics you list has no bearing on the fact that “leftist” ideas are spreading more rapidly in the US and people are thirsty for change. The current statistics don’t say anything of the future.

              When Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam and eventually liberated that country from capitalism, it was just him and a handful of others starting out. Different circumstances of course, but the point is things can change rapidly. Demographic statistics are irrelevant to that.

              There is still much work to do. Capitalism will end one day - even if outside our lifetimes. No one now can predict how that will turn out, but it will end just as feudalism did when the conditions of the world changed.

                • Ruxias@lemmy.world
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                  4 hours ago

                  And years ago, there we people saying the same as you about the political parties that we struggle to remember now. I won’t lose hope, but you’re entitled to your speculation.

    • Uruanna@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      France has been doing that for LFI for a few years, with Macron pushing Le Pen. Right wing media (most of them) have religiously followed suit, calling them radicals and extremists.

      • nomad@infosec.pub
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        6 hours ago

        Yeah great, let’s be the flip side of the coin instead of a force for betterment in the world. Let’s kill 23 year olds that barely have lived or learned at all and totally will never change in their lives.

        • rainwall@piefed.social
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          20 minutes ago

          He was providing “secutity” to far right agitators, i.e he was the french equivilant of a proud boy or neo nazi. He likely started the fight that killed him. Should those leftists let him beat them to death instead?

          Id save your recriminations for better souls. Nazis like him want you dead, and would kill millions of others if they could. When you expouse mass death, the ignorance of youth is no shield.

        • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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          2 hours ago

          Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, the Balkans, and the Baltics all got to experience the joys of having the Nazis turfed out by opponents on the far left.

  • NomNom@feddit.uk
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    1 hour ago

    France right now is like a powder keg

    This far-right activist was beaten by a street group calling themselves the Young Guards (“Le Jeune Gardes”). What makes this case dangerous is that Raphael Arnault, leader of Young Guards, is also a famous French MP.

    He is part of a left-wing party calling themselves the France Rebellion (“France Insoumise”).

    Raphael Arnault has been involved in street fights with Young Guards against Lepen supporters. He was even sentenced to jail by a judge. However, his political party always defended him, despite his criminal conviction.

    Now, the France Rebellion party is getting blamed for this death. And they are facing massive calls for physical retribution.

    Things could really get out of control.

    Let’s hope that cool heads prevail.

    • jhell@sh.itjust.works
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      3 hours ago

      For the sake of accuracy, as i think the translation “France rebellion” makes it sound more ominous, i believe something closer to the meaning would be like “indomitable France”.

  • TribblesBestFriend@startrek.website
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    9 hours ago

    Fucker Macron allied himself with the RN multiple time and know he’s shocked when the country know for its manifestation is protecting itself. What wanker