PARIS, Feb 22 (Reuters) – France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Sunday that he would summon the United States ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, over remarks about the murder of a French far-right activist last week.
“We reject any political opportunism around this drama, which is the mourning of a French family,” he said during an interview with France Info, France Inter and Le Monde.
He added that he would also raise the issue of U.S. sanctions against former European Commissioner Thierry Breton and the French judge of the International Criminal Court Nicolas Guillou, describing the measures as attacks on the autonomy of the European Union’s decision-making process 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 suspend the sanctions against Breton and Guillou.
The French far-right activist Quentin Deranque was beaten to death in a clash with alleged far-left activists, in an incident that shocked the nation and was called the “France’s Charlie Kirk moment,” in reference to last year’s shooting of the American conservative activist.
The U.S. Embassy in France and the U.S. State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau said they were monitoring the case, posting on X that “left-wing violent radicalism was on the rise” and should be treated as a threat to public safety.
(Reporting by Layli Foroudi)
