France to summon US ambassador over comments on far-right activist's death

PARIS, Feb 22 (Reuters) - French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Sunday that he would summon the U.S. ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, over comments on the killing of a French far-right activist last week.

“We refuse all political opportunism around this drama, which is the bereavement of a French family,” he said during an interview with French media outlets France Info, France Inter and Le Monde.

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He added that he would also raise the U.S. sanctions against former European Commissioner Thierry Breton and French judge at the International Criminal Court Nicolas Guillou, describing the measures as attacks on the autonomy of European Union decision making and the independence of the international justice system.

The Tribune newspaper reported on Saturday night that French President Emmanuel Macron had written to U.S. President Donald Trump asking him to lift the sanctions against Breton and Guillou.

French far-right activist Quentin Deranque was beaten to death in a fight with alleged hard-left activists, in an incident that shocked the nation and has been called “France’s Charlie Kirk moment”, referring to last year’s shooting of the U.S. conservative activist.

The U.S. Embassy in France and the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism said they were monitoring the case, warning on X that “violent radical leftism was on the rise” and should be treated as a public safety threat.

Reporting by Layli Foroudi; Editing by Alex Richardson, Kirsten Donovan

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