France will summon US envoy Charles Kushner over comments on activist’s death

France will summon US ambassador Charles Kushner to protest against comments by the Trump administration over the death of a far-right activist, the foreign affairs minister said.Jean-Noel Barrot was reacting to a statement by the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, which posted on social media that “reports, corroborated by the French Minister of the Interior, that Quentin Deranque was killed by left-wing militants, should concern us all”.Deranque, a far-right activist, died of brain injuries last week from a beating in the French city of Lyon. He was attacked during a fight on the margins of a student meeting where a far-left lawmaker, Rima Hassan, was a keynote speaker.His killing highlighted a climate of deep political tensions ahead of next year’s presidential vote. French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm on Saturday as some 3,000 people joined a march in Lyon organised by far-right groups to pay tribute to Deranque.“We reject any instrumentalisation of this tragedy, which has plunged a French family into mourning, for political ends,” Barrot said. “We have no lessons to learn, particularly on the issue of violence, from the international reactionary movement.”The State Department said in its post that “violent radical leftism is on the rise and its role in Quentin Deranque’s death demonstrates the threat it poses to public safety. We will continue to monitor the situation and expect to see the perpetrators of violence brought to justice”.Charles Kushner, US ambassador to France, in Paris in December. Photo: AFP