Sawt Falasteen - Thousands march in France for slain far-right activist under heavy security

The crowd -- many wearing black and some covering their lower faces with masks -- marched through the city of Lyon carrying flowers and placards bearing pictures of Quentin Deranque and the words, "justice for Quentin" and "the extreme left kills".

The 23-year-old died from head injuries following clashes between radical left and far-right supporters on the sidelines of a demonstration against a politician from the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party in Lyon last week.

Authorities had deployed heavy security, including drones, fearing further clashes at the event, which was widely publicised online by ultra-nationalist and far-right groups and had been expected to draw thousands.

Hours before the gathering, French President Emmanuel Macron had urged "everyone to remain" calm and said his government would hold a meeting next week to discuss "violent action groups" in the wake of the fatal beating, which has ignited tensions between the left and right ahead of the 2027 presidential vote.

"In the Republic, no violence is legitimate," said Macron, who will be unable to contest next year's election after hitting the two-term limit. "There is no place for militias, no matter where they come from."

The regional prefect Fabienne Buccio, said no calls to organise a counter protest had been seen on social media but that security would be deployed into the evening to head off any clashes.

"We will not tolerate the slightest incident during the march, just as we will not tolerate any incident on its sidelines," she said.

- 'Defend his memory' -

Before the procession set off, mourners gathered in the church frequented by Deranque before his death and his portrait was hung from the facade of the administrative headquarters of the Auvergne–Rhône-Alpes region.

Laurent, a friend of Deranque, attended "to defend his memory" in the setting "where Quentin expressed himself most intensely, namely the Catholic Church and the traditional rite," he said.

One of the rally's organisers, Aliette Espieux, former spokesperson for the anti-abortion movement, told AFP she wished for a "peaceful tribute".

She hit out, however, at Jordan Bardella, the president of the far-right National Rally party, which senses its best chance ever of scoring the presidency in next year's vote.

Bardella had urged his supporters not to attend the rally, with Espieux saying, "I don't find that very honourable."

According to the Deranque family's lawyer, Fabien Rajon, his parents will not take part in the rally, which they hoped would go ahead "without violence" and "without political statements".

Several ultra-right-wing groups, including Deranque's nationalist Allobroges Bourgoin faction, had nonetheless heavily publicised the march on social media, stoking authorities' concerns of unrest if far-right and hard-left activists from elsewhere in Europe travelled to France for the event.

- Calls to ban rally -

Ahead of the Lyon rally, some residents living near the march's planned route had barricaded the ground floor windows of their apartments.

"At my age, I'm not going to play the tough guy. If I have to go out somewhere, I'll avoid the places where they're marching," said Lyon local Jean Echeverria, 87.

"They'll just keep fighting each other, it'll never end. Between the extreme of this and the extreme of that, it's non-stop," he added.

The rally went ahead despite Lyon's left-wing green mayor, Gregory Doucet, asking the state to ban it, telling reporters he did not "want Lyon to be the capital of the far right, at any point".

LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard backed the Lyon mayor's call for a ban, warning on X that the march would be a "fascist demonstration".

But Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declined to ban the rally, arguing that he had to "strike a balance between maintaining public order and freedom of expression" and pledging an "extremely large police deployment".

Deranque's death has provoked a reaction from US President Donald Trump's administration, with State Department official Sarah Rogers on Friday branding the killing "terrorism" and claiming that "violent radical leftism is on the rise".

Six men suspected of involvement in the fatal assault have been charged over the killing, while a parliamentary assistant to a radical left-wing MP has also been charged with complicity.

T.Samara--SF-PST