Paris (France) (AFP) – Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon asked La France insoumise on Wednesday to “exclude” MP Raphaël Arnault from his group in the National Assembly after the questioning of his parliamentary assistant in the investigation into the death of Quentin Deranque.
Published on: 02/18/2026 - 08:43
“France Insoumise must clean up its ranks and I call on President Mathilde Panot to exclude Raphaël Arnault from her group, or at least to exclude him temporarily to mark this clarification, to say no to violence,” she said on franceinfo.
Judging that the French have "all a responsibility" when they vote for the Insoumis, she called for there to be "never again an LFI deputy in the National Assembly".
For her part, the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet called on “each political party to ask themselves the question”: is “such a deputy or such an elected official likely to represent me, to represent the nation and to bear the name of my party”?
Ella regretted that Jean-Luc Mélenchon "did not say words of appeasement" in his conference Tuesday evening, also accusing him of "having made him boo" in front of his activists.
Insoumise France "does not accept the lessons" of Sébastien Lecornu, who asked the radical left movement to "clean up" its "ranks" after the death of nationalist activist Quentin Deranque, reacted Tuesday evening Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Nine suspects, including Jacques-Elie Favrot, parliamentary assistant to rebellious MP Raphaël Arnault, were arrested on Tuesday as part of the investigation into the murder of Quentin Deranque, a young nationalist activist beaten up on Thursday in Lyon on the sidelines of a conference by LFI MEP Rima Hassan.
The President of the Assembly asked “that all political leaders call for calm and a debate of ideas”.
“There we are talking about the ultra-left, but there are also small groups of the extreme right who are in the streets, who are also looking for a fight and who commit reprehensible acts and are indicted and sometimes incarcerated,” she added.
On the other hand, she said she was opposed to a general ban on political meetings in universities.
“Everyone has the right to express themselves in universities (...) There should be no general ban, because our young people need to train their minds.”
© 2026 AFP
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