France’s Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot attends a session of questions to the government at the National Assemblyin Paris on February 24, 2026.
THOMAS SAMSON / AFP
French officials should know better than to scold foreign leaders for talking about the killing of Quentin Deranque.
There have been plenty of significant developments in the case of Quentin Deranque, the 23-year-old patriotic activist who died on February 14th after taking a brutal beating two days earlier in Lyon. It is especially worth noting that reports say Jacques-Élie Favrot—an associate of Raphaël Arnault, the far-left MP who founded the ‘antifascist’ La Jeune Garde group that officials believe was involved in the attack—has admitted in police custody to shouting to his alleged accomplices: “Go Lyon Antifa we’ve got him! … Finish him off, kill him!”
Yet Emmanuel Macron’s team appears more occupied with scolding foreign officials for telling the truth about Quentin’s death.
Indeed, this side of the story has received far more attention since the president’s team summoned Charles Kushner, the U.S. ambassador to Paris, after Donald Trump’s administration warned about “violent left-wing extremism” being “on the rise.”
Even a number of French commentators have dismissed this summoning. Emmanuel de Villiers said on an RMC talk show on Tuesday morning: “Charles Kushner has been around the block. He doesn’t get summoned by a garden gnome [in this case, presumably, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot], just like that, for something completely pointless.”
🫢 Emmanuel de Villiers clash le ministre des affaires étrangères, Jean-Noël Barrot
🗣️ @E2Villiers : "Charles Kushner a roulé sa bosse. Il ne se fait pas convoquer par un nain de jardin, comme ça, pour un truc complètement inutile"#GGRMCpic.twitter.com/T4vwQWf21q
Alain Weber also on Sunday highlighted Paris’ hypocrisy, describing the summoning of Kushner as “a great classic of Macronist diplomacy: scream ‘interference’ the moment an ally dares to post a tweet or issue a statement about a French matter, while cheerfully doing exactly the same thing abroad for years.”
Regardless of all this, Barrot was clearly fuming when Kushner refused to show up to a meeting, saying he had failed to respect “the most basic customs of diplomacy” and moving to block him from having access to French government ministers. Kushner, who happens to be the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, was also summoned to the French ministry last year but skipped that meeting too, sending an official instead.
Diplomatic sources said on Tuesday afternoon that Kushner has since called Barrot to tell him that he will not interfere in France’s affairs. But this, of course, will not alter the risk of far-leftism in France—or, indeed, across the rest of Europe.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
