Jean-Noel Barrot was responding to a statement from the U.S. State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, which said that “reports, confirmed by the French Interior Minister, that Quentin Deranque was murdered by left-wing militants should concern us all.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said this in its statement message on X that “violent radical leftism is on the rise and its role in the death of Quentin Deranque demonstrates the threat it poses to public safety. We will continue to monitor the situation and expect the perpetrators of violence to be brought to justice.”
Deranque, a far-right activist, died last week of brain injuries from a beating in the French city of Lyon. He was attacked during a fight on the sidelines 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 elections. French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm on Saturday as around 3,000 people took part in a march in Lyon organized by far-right groups to pay tribute to Deranque.
“We reject any instrumentalization of this tragedy, which has plunged a French family into mourning, for political purposes,” Barrot said. “We have no lessons to learn, especially in the area of violence, from the international reactionary movement.”
Seven people have been provisionally charged. The Lyon Public Prosecution Service requested that each of them be charged with intentional murder, aggravated violence and criminal conspiracy. Six of the suspects were charged on all three counts. The seventh was charged with complicity to intentional murder, aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy.
Barrot said he has other topics to discuss with Kushner, including U.S. decisions to impose sanctions on Thierry Breton, a former European Union commissioner responsible for overseeing social media rules, and Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the International Criminal Court.
Barrot said both are being targeted by “unjustified and unjustifiable” sanctions.
The Foreign Ministry did not say when the meeting will take place.
This is the second time Kushner has been called up by France. In August last year he was called for a letter he sent a message to Macron claiming the country was not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism.
In a statement obtained by CBS News at the time, France rejected the charges, saying they were “contrary to international law.”
“They also fall short in terms of the quality of the transatlantic partnership between France and the United States and the trust that must prevail between the allies,” the statement said.
Macron told it “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” in September that it was out of character for Kushner, the father of President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to publicly accuse him of insufficient action to combat anti-Semitism.
Macron said a French ambassador should never make similar public comments about another country as this would jeopardize diplomacy with those countries.
“So either you are someone who wants to express yourself freely,” Macron said. “If you are a diplomat, you must follow the rule of diplomacy. …The [American] Taxpayers’ money is not being used properly to fund these types of statements.”
France’s foreign officials met with a representative of the US ambassador as the diplomat did not appear at the meeting.
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