“What happened to Quentin, it feels like it could have happened dozens of times to our supporters in recent years,” said National Rally MEP Pierre-Romain Thionnet.
“Of course, those are not the same circumstances,” Thionnet said of the Kirk comparison. “But there are similarities in the way it resonates.”
Deranque was, unlike Kirk, unknown to the general public before he died Saturday after taking several blows to the head during a fight that broke out near a university where MEP Rima Hassan was attending an event.
The events leading up to the fight that cost Deranque his life remain unclear. The far-right feminist group Collectif Nemesis said Deranque was providing security for them at their protest against Hassan and her anticapitalist party, France Unbowed.
France Unbowed and its firebrand leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon have been the focus of most of the fury following revelations that police are investigating whether members of the now-disbanded antifascist group Young Guard, cofounded by France Unbowed lawmaker Raphaël Arnault, was involved in the fight.
A judge on Thursday placed two people under formal investigation for voluntary homicide, while one of Arnault’s parliamentary assistants was put under formal investigation for aiding and abetting a crime.