This article first appeared in New English Review.
It seems every few weeks, France is shaken by some horrific event that shocks the nation's conscience. Usually, it comes in the form of some horrific violent crime, a murder or rape committed by some illegal migrant, as well as the occasional terrorist attack at the hands of Islamist terrorists. Jews have been a prime target, and Christian churches have come under attack by vandals or, even worse, knife-wielding Islamists.
This past week, another shocker hit the nation. On February 12, in Lyon, there was an event at the University of Lyon SciencesPO featuring Rima Hassan, a Syrian-born, anti-Israel activist, who also happens to be a member of the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, representing the left-wing party, La France Insoumise, headed by Jean-Luc Melanchon.
Outside the event, a protest against Hassan was underway by a conservative feminist organization called Nemesis. A 23-year-old student identified as Quentin Deranque, who is described by the French media as being a right-wing nationalist, was reportedly providing security for the protesters when he was attacked by a group of about 6 persons, who were masked and hooded. The attackers, reportedly made up of 5 males and 1 female, proceeded to severely beat Deranque, who subsequently died in the hospital.
Police eventually identified 6 suspects, all of whom reportedly belong to a far-left, Antifa-type group called La Jeune Garde (The Young Guard), which is closely associated with La France Insoumise and is currently banned in France by order of the Interior Minister. In the past day or so, they have been arrested along with 3 other persons, the latter 3 not believed to have directly participated in the attack. One of the arrestees charged with the murder is Jacques-Elie Favrot, who is an assistant to another La France Insoumise deputy, Raphael Arnault, who represents the Vaucluse department of southeastern France in the National Assembly. He has now reportedly been dismissed from his position.
If all that isn't shocking enough, Arnault is on file with France's intelligence agencies under Fiche-S, an "S-card", which designates him as a national security risk, not enough to result in an arrest warrant, but sufficient to warrant placing him under surveillance. Arnault is also a co-founder of La Jeune Garde.
Naturally, this has caused an uproar throughout the country and in the French Parliament as well. The left has, obviously, been badly discredited. Melenchon, true to form, while condemning violence, angrily says that he will not be lectured by the right. In the past, he has publicly embraced La Jeune Garde.
It remains to be seen how this will impact France and its political situation going forward. So much has happened in the last several years, but the country's leaders just keep plodding along, going from one atrocity to another, always deploring the horrors but failing to address the problem.
Without naming names, can you imagine if something like this happened in the US? Imagine a conservative activist being beaten to death by a radical left group. Imagine one of the accused attackers being an aide to some politician in Congress, who, himself or herself, was a co-founder of that radical left group that carried out the attack. Of course, that could never happen here.
Could it?
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