The death of Quentin Deranque, a royalist and far-right activist who was fatally beaten during a brawl between the far-right organization he belonged to and a group of “antifas”, has given rise to a reactionary political campaign that is both sickening and dangerous.

A whole horde of politicians from the ranks of the National Rally (RN), different right-wing parties, the government, part of the Socialist Party and the majority of the media ganged up in a concerted effort to hound the left-wing party Unsubmissive France (LFI) on the pretext that the founder of the anti-fascist collective Jeune garde (Young Guard) – of which two former members have been put under investigation – is a party member.

While LFI, “antifas” and the far left are being accused of bearing a moral responsibility for the death of the young far-right activist and of spreading violence in politics, we are witnessing both the whitewashing of the RN which is being rehabilitated in democratic and republican circles and the normalization of far-right ideas. References to Hitler and Pétain, the leader of French collaboration with Nazi Germany, have even resurfaced.

Martine Vassal, a right-wing candidate running for mayor in Marseille, is using Pétain’s motto “Work, Family, Fatherland” in her campaign. In an attempt to outdo all the others, Aurore Bergé, one of Macron’s close followers, called LFI an “anti-France” party, the expression Philippe Pétain used to characterize the communists and Jews he had arrested and whom he condemned to death during the Second World War.

The National Assembly held a minute of silence for Quentin Deranque, who, we know, came to support far-right activists determined to disrupt a conference on Palestine. But how many victims killed by racists aren’t even mentioned on the news? And, oftentimes, the racist nature of the crime isn’t even recognized like when Djamel Bendjaballah was murdered near Dunkirk in 2024.

The Minister of the Interior, who has been quick to ban any rallies in solidarity with Palestine, allowed the extreme far right to pay homage to their newfound martyr. Far-right thugs specialized in hunting down immigrant workers, left-wing activists, homosexuals and Muslims were thus able to march through the streets of Lyon on a Saturday afternoon. After spending the week spray-painting graffiti and vandalizing offices belonging to left-wing organizations and certain trade unions, they then marched openly in public, chanting and displaying their Nazi salutes.

Behind all this are vile political calculations. For the government, the goal is to isolate Mélenchon from the rest of the left in order to neutralize a key rival in the upcoming 2027 presidential elections. As for the right, it has found a convenient pretext to join with the far right in a reversed “republican front” aimed at marginalizing LFI.

This campaign is leading us straight toward a government like Trump’s, one that is even more violently hostile towards workers, the poor and immigrants and even more committed to billionaires. We mustn’t be fooled!

And since we’re talking about violence, why not talk about the real violence – that of wars and bombs — that is wreaking havoc on society?

Are all those who say they are appalled by how cruel the political debate is becoming opposed to that violence? Not at all. In fact, they support it. They even opposed those who called the violence in Gaza a genocide, as if 70,000 men, women and children buried under tons of bombs wasn’t enough! These so-called “non-violent” people tell us every single day that we must get ready for war and to die for our country, like the Ukrainians. But this sort of mass killing, organized by the state and army, is never considered violence.

For them, the same thing goes for the economic war that the capitalists are leading against us – it’s not considered violence either. So then what do you call daily exploitation with all the suffering, injuries, illnesses it causes and the 1,000 deaths in the workplace every year?

Low wages, job insecurity and layoffs are all forms of violence imposed on millions of women and men. And when workers rise up and protest, they again are met with violence as was the case with the Yellow Vest movement.

So, we mustn’t be intimidated by this campaign! Workers who are outraged by the current social order are right to speak out against it and should be worried about the racist and reactionary evolution of society. The solution won’t come from the political snake pit but from workers themselves, through their capacity to unite and realize that their fellow workers, whatever their origins, skin color or religious beliefs may be, are both comrades that suffer the same exploitation and comrades in arms.

Nathalie Arthaud