The French Foreign Ministry will summon the US ambassador in Paris over comments made by the Trump administration about the murder of a French far-right activist blamed on the far left, France’s top diplomat said on Sunday.
The death of Quentin Deranque has put France on edge, causing tensions between left and right ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
It has also sparked international reactions: US President Donald Trump’s right-wing government on Friday denounced what it called “terrorism” in France.
“We are going to summon the US ambassador to France, since the US embassy in France commented on this tragedy… which concerns the national community,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told French media. Le Monde, France Inter and France Info.
“We reject any attempt to use this tragedy… for political purposes,” he added.
The Foreign Ministry did not say when Ambassador Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, would be summoned.
Deranque, 23, died from head injuries following clashes between radical left and far-right supporters on the sidelines of a February 12 demonstration against a politician from the left-wing France Insoumise (LFI) party in Lyon.
More than 3,000 people marched in Lyon on Saturday in honor of Deranque, and authorities deployed tight security measures for fear of new clashes.
On Friday, Sarah Rogers, the State Department’s undersecretary for public diplomacy, said Deranque’s killing demonstrated “why we treat political violence – terrorism – so harshly.”
“Once you decide to kill people for their opinions instead of persuading them, you have chosen to leave civilization,” he wrote in X.
The State Department’s counterterrorism office separately posted: “Violent radical leftism is on the rise and its role in the death of Quentin Deranque demonstrates the threat it poses to public safety,” a post shared in French by the US embassy account.
Deranque’s murder has also sparked a diplomatic row between France and Italy, whose right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has close ties to Trump.
She called Deranque’s murder “a wound for all of Europe,” prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to criticize her for speaking out on French internal affairs.
Six men suspected of involvement in the fatal assault have been charged with the murder, while a parliamentary assistant to a radical left-wing MP has also been charged with complicity.
