The specter of political violence tightens its grip on France after the death of the young nationalist Quentin Deranque, lynched by a group of masked individuals in the streets of Lyon. On Tuesday, the police arrested several suspects, including Jacques-Élie Favrot, parliamentary assistant to the deputy of La France Insumisa Rapahaël Arnault, founder of the far-left group Guardia Joven. The National Assembly observed a minute of silence on Tuesday for Quentin's death, amid mutual accusations and concerns about the growing activity of the ultras groups. The number of detainees has risen to 11 on Wednesday following the arrest of two more individuals.
"Beyond their ideological differences, fascist and antifascist groups adopt a kind of mimicry, which involves confronting each other in the streets", warns historian Sylvain Boulouque, who recalls that in Lyon alone, between 2010 and 2025, there were over a hundred assaults from one extreme or the other: "Each group is seeking violence to prevent the other from expressing themselves."
Despite government orders to "dissolve" the ultras groups, many of them continue to operate outside the law, stretching to the maximum the two extremes of the political spectrum, beyond the parliamentary bipolarity represented by Marine Le Pen's National Rally and Jean-Luc Mélenchon's La France Insumisa.
The collective Némesis takes its name from the Greek goddess of "revenge and fair justice." Founded in 2019 by Alice Cordier (pseudonym), it defines itself as "an association for the protection of women" against the "threat" posed by immigrants, especially of Muslim origin. Their speeches blend xenophobia with denunciations of sexual violence in a kind of neo-feminism. On the last International Women's Day, they protested with banners carrying the message "End to mass immigration." They often disrupt events of the far-left, such as the conference by the Euro MP of La France Insumisa Rima Hassan at the Institute of Political Studies (IEP) in Lyon, which preceded Quentin Deranque's death. The group consists of around 300 activists, although they have over 120,000 followers on Instagram and X. They deny being "far-right," although their anti-immigration message is very close to that of the National Rally and Éric Zemmour's Reconquest party.
Founded in 2018 by Raphaël Arnault, Guardia Joven emerged in response to the actions of the far-right group Bastion Social and is considered one of the main references of the "antifascist" movement in Lyon. Arnault distanced himself from the group to run for elections with the New Anticapitalist Party, part of the New Popular Front with La France Insumisa. The leader of the latter, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, once described Guardia Joven as "an organization allied and linked to the insubordinate movement." A prominent member of the group, Jacques-Elle Favrot, started working as Arnault's parliamentary assistant until this week when he was denied access to the National Assembly. In April 2025, the Ministry of the Interior announced the initiation of a "dissolution process" for Guardia Joven.
"Guardia Joven kills, and La France Insumisa should condemn it," declared Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin on Tuesday, on the sidelines of a conference by LFI's Euro MP Rima Hassan. "There is undeniable violence" affecting both groups, he estimated before the deputies during the government questions, reproaching LFI for considering this antifascist movement as "an allied organization."
The nationalist group Bastion Social was established in several French cities and had its headquarters in Old Lyon until it was dissolved by government order in 2019. It is considered the precursor of the new wave of ultras groups that have emerged since then under various names across the country.
"We are back!" was the message with which the group Audacia (Audace) presented itself publicly as a remake of Bastion Social, with the rooster as its symbol and the same "revolutionary nationalist" message. Their goal is to create "shock actions to defend the interests of French people of European descent." Audacia has capitalized on Quentin Deranque's death and has called for a "march" in his honor on February 21 in Lyon.
Established in the 1960s, the so-called Group of Defence of the Union (GUD) was relaunched in 2022 and established its operational base at the Panthéon-Assas University in Paris, using the Celtic cross as its emblem and leveraging the so-called "identitarian rock" as a propaganda tool. The group was officially dissolved in 2024 by government order, along with two other ultras groups rooted in Lyon: Les Remparts and La Traboule.
Founded in 2003 by former members of Unidad Radical, The Identitarians define themselves as an "ethno-regionalist" movement and have had limited success in local elections. They once had their own portal, Novopress, created by former Bloc Identitaire leader Fabrice Robert. They have been labeled as a group of "white nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiment."
The portal La Horde identifies over fifty antifa organizations in France, from the Antifascist Group of Lyon and Surroundings to the Antifascist Action of Paris-Banlieu, including the Fight against Fascism in Isère or the Antifascist Action of l'Ain. In the last decade, coinciding with the rise of the far-right, there has been a real explosion of antifa groups. Following Quentin's death, Marine Le Pen has demanded that they be considered as "terrorist organizations."
Direct actions by anarchist groups are also experiencing a revival in southern France. In a statement sent to the Indymedia portal, two anarchist gangs claimed responsibility for the arson attacks on power substations that left 160,000 homes on the French Riviera without electricity last summer, on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival.
In just 23 years, Quentin Deranque explored all the intricacies of the far-right, from the monarchist line of Acción Francesa to Catholic traditionalism, until he embraced the nationalism of Némesis, the group where he served as security chief in the protest that preceded his tragic death in the streets of Lyon. His family and friends paid him a farewell on Sunday at the Saint-Georges church, where the Latin mass is still celebrated, and where he volunteered in "parish activities."
His friends remember his "moral and spiritual virtues": reader of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine, a regular attendee at conferences at the Christian Academy, and attracted to mathematics despite studying data science at Lyon-II University. A tennis enthusiast in his childhood, his latest passion was boxing and self-defense. Nevertheless, his friends claim that "he was not violent or aggressive" and that he died defending his ideals: "Quentin belongs to legend, he is already a hero and a martyr." The Lyon prosecutor confirmed that he had no criminal record.