PARIS: France&#39;s far-right leader Jordan Bardella on Wednesday accused President Emmanuel Macron and his allies of helping strengthen the hard-left as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed shock at the fatal beating of a far-right activist blamed on the ultra-left. Quentin Deranque, 23, died after sustaining a severe brain injury when he was attacked by at least six people last week.&nbsp; The attack happened on the sidelines of a far-right protest against a hard-left politician speaking at a university in the southeastern city of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/france-opens-probe-of-exminister-lang-after-epstein-revelations" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lyon</a>. Far right, hard left tensions&nbsp;The incident has fueled tension between France&#39;s far right and hard left ahead of municipal elections in March and the 2027 presidential race, in which the far-right National Rally (RN) party is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job. RN head Jordan Bardella, 30, accused Macron and high-profile centrist politicians former prime ministers Gabriel Attal and Edouard Philippe of having &quot;opened the doors of the National Assembly to the worst thugs of the far left.&quot; &quot;The president bears moral and political responsibility for the institutionalisation of the far left and extreme left, particularly in the National Assembly,&quot; he said. &lsquo;Protective barrier&rsquo;&nbsp;In snap parliamentary polls in 2024, Macron&#39;s supporters and the left, including the hard-left, had allied against the far right, in a strategy called &quot;cordon sanitaire&quot; (which roughly translates as &quot;protective barrier&quot;) aimed at barring the extreme right from power. Seeking to turn the tables on his rivals, Bardella called for the creation of &quot;a cordon sanitaire&quot; to isolate the LFI and &quot;keep it away from institutions, whether in the National Assembly, where its deputies sit on numerous committees, or in view of the upcoming municipal elections.&quot; <h2 style="line-height: 2;">&#39;Wound for all of Europe&#39;&nbsp;</h2>In Italy,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/serious-popular-besties-with-trump-italys-meloni-marks-three-years" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Meloni</a>, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, said the killing of Deranque &quot;shocks and deeply saddens us.&quot; &quot;The death of a boy just over 20 years old, attacked by groups linked to left-wing extremism and overwhelmed by a climate of ideological hatred that is sweeping across several nations, is a wound for all of Europe,&quot; she said on social media.<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 873px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2024153741658624409&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=b20dfaf377288055659d21dac844e09f45427c2a&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" data-tweet-id="2024153741658624409"></iframe></div></div>Earlier Wednesday, socialist lawmaker and former president Francois Hollande was the latest left-wing politician to reject another alliance with LFI. &quot;For municipal elections, there can be no alliance between the Socialists or parties of the reformist left and LFI in the second round, that&#39;s clear,&quot; he told broadcaster BFMTV. While the government has singled out the LFI and an anti-fascist youth group called La Jeune Garde (Young Guard), prosecutors have declined to comment on those claims, only specifying the incident was being investigated as a voluntary homicide and aggravated assault. Threatening messages&nbsp;LFI party members say they have received threatening messages since Deranque&#39;s death. &quot;Since the tragedy in Lyon, I&#39;ve been receiving a flood of racist insults and death threats,&quot; said Lahouaria Addouche, who is running for mayor in Lille. The national headquarters of LFI had to be evacuated following a bomb threat, party coordinator Manuel Bompard said on X, before the building was declared safe. South of Paris, a 28-year-old far-right activist was arrested after social media threats, including of decapitation, against one Socialist and two LFI candidates, the prosecutor in the town of Auxerre said. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Parliament assistant fired&nbsp;</h2>On Wednesday, Lyon&#39;s prosecutor, Thierry Dran, announced the latest arrests related to Deranque&#39;s death. A man suspected of having a direct link to the violence, and his partner, suspected of having helped him evade justice, were taken into custody as part of the investigation for &quot;intentional homicide&quot;, Dran said. Six of the other detainees are suspected of having participated in the beating and three of having helped them, a source following the case said. An assistant to Raphael Arnault, a member of parliament from LFI, was among the first four detained, the source said. Arnault said he was firing the assistant. An anti-immigration collective called Nemesis said Deranque had been at the protest in Lyon to protect its members. Nemesis has blamed the killing on La Jeune Garde co-founded by Arnault before he was elected to parliament.

Europe

France's far-right leader Jordan Bardella on Wednesday accused President Emmanuel Macron and his allies of helping strengthen the hard-left as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed shock at the fatal beating of a far-right activist blamed on the ultra-left.

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French far-right leader accuses Macron, allies of strengthening hard-left after activist killed

French far-right leader accuses Macron, allies of strengthening hard-left after activist killed