French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Sunday that he would summon the US ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, over comments on the killing of a French far-right activist last week.
"We are going to summon the United States ambassador to France, since the US embassy in France commented on this tragedy... which concerns the national community," Barrot told local media, adding: "We reject any attempt to use this tragedy... for political purposes."
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.
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The US Embassy in France and the US 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.
Sarah Rogers, the US State Department under secretary for public diplomacy, said Deranque's killing showed "why we treat political violence – terrorism – so harshly".
"Once you decide to kill people for their opinions instead of persuade them, you've opted out of civilization," she wrote on X.
The administration of US President Donald Trump condemned the role of "violent radical leftism" in the case.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
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