Sweet France, dear land of my childhood, cradle of so much carefree joy, I have kept you in my heart, my village with its steeple and wise houses, where children my age shared my happiness, yes, I love you, and I give you this poem, yes, I love you, in joy or in sorrow… —Charles Trenet, “Douce France.”
THE murder of Quentin Deranque in Lyon, France by an Antifa mob has aroused a number of troubling questions in France and abroad. The young, devout Catholic man was followed after defending some girls from Antifa, and mobbed and murdered when alone. As usual, Antifa France — as in every other country — is quite aggressive when facing people alone or weaker than themselves. It is usually a different story when the odds are more equal. In any case, the media industry in France attempted to characterise him as a “Far Right Activist,” with the not-so-subtle implication that he got what he deserved. Predictably, president Emmanuel Macron declared that political violence from neither left nor right would be tolerated — conveniently ignoring the fact that the first has been far more violent than the second, and Islamist violence in France has dwarfed both.
Deranque was a recent convert, who was also a fervent member of the Chartres Pigrimage. The Association Notre Dame de Chrétienté who put on the pilgrimage issued a statement of their own:
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends, John XV, 13.
On Thursday, February 12, Quentin, assistant to the head of the Saint Avit chapter in Lyon, a recent convert, a faithful member of the Saint Georges parish and the Saint Just Collegiate Church, who was studying Gregorian chant and serving the poor during outreach efforts, was brutally murdered. He died of his wounds on Saturday, February 14.
Quentin had agreed to participate in a peaceful demonstration that political activists tried to prevent. That’s why he was lynched.
The Notre-Dame de Chrétienté Association extends its deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. It invites all pilgrims to pray for the repose of his soul, for the consolation of his family, and for the conversion of his murderers.
In response to the murder, Louis, Duke of Anjou — considered heir to the French throne as Louis XX by the Legitimists — declared that:
In a French society where the State can no longer foster a collective project and where identity politics and communalism offer refuge to individuals yearning for a unifying and protective framework, this violence is as serious as it is dangerous.
We must undertake a process of national reconciliation before the worst happens. We must reconnect with a unifying principle, an essential condition for everyone, regardless of their beliefs or particular affiliations, to enjoy true peace within the territory of our beloved country. The destiny of France and the future of our children depend on it.
All of this has occurred at a time when French politics as a whole are in a divided state. Since the elections of 2024, which ended with a parliament divided into thirds — Far Left, Centrist/Macronite, “Far Right” — four or five prime ministers have come and gone. The Rassemblement National — the successor to the Front National — is accused of being Far Right, although the current party chieftainess has been careful to forbid party members in Lyon from honouring the murdered Quentin Deranque in any way. Prevented from running against Macron in the last presidential elections through legal technicalities, her party was the largest single party in the first round of the 2024 parliamentary elections. Most of the other parties, regardless of ideology, formed a “cordon sanitaire” to keep as the RN out of power. Of course, since the left know what they want and for the most part the “Conservative” or “Centrist” parties are pure government employment agencies lacking any strong ideology any more, policies tend to drift left. Nevertheless, the inherent instability has seen four or five Prime Ministers come and go in the past year and a half — the largest turnover in the shortest time since Charles de Gaulle inaugurated the Fifth Republic in 1958.
The current Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has been in office since September 9, 2025. He is considered a Conservative, describing himself as “rather Gaullist, fundamentally right-wing,” while at the same time claiming to “liberal and European.” He was a campaigner against gay “marriage,” surrogacy, and IVF, although he now claims to have “evolved on these issues.” Le Cornu has claimed to be tough on immigration, although little action has been seen as yet on this front, and given his desire to stay in office, it may be that little shall be seen.
All of this brings us to the Head of State, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron. Born on December 21, 1977, in Amiens, his parents named him in reference to the biblical prophecy of Jesus Christ being called Emmanuel. Despite this inspiration, his father at least was anti-religious; at the age of 12, he asked to be baptised against his father’s wishes: “I went to church by myself. It was the beginning of a mystical period which lasted several years. After which, I drifted away from religion.” The drift away began at the Lycée La Providence, a Jesuit-run school where, at age 14, he began an affair with the 39-year old drama teacher, Brigitte Trogneux. Not very happy with this arrangement, his parents sent him away to Paris to attend the prestigious Lycée Henri IV. After college he would marry his high school teacher/sweetheart in 2007, the year after she divorced the father of her three children. Out of college he became a Socialist.
Having risen up the ranks, he became a chief assistant to French Socialist president, Francois Holland. Meanwhile, polls showed RN candidate Marine Le Pen looming larger and larger in the 2017 elections as a leading contender for next occupant of the Elysee Palace, France’s presidential residence. Macron left the Socialists and cobbled together his own “centrist coalition” for the precise purpose of preventing Mlle. Le Pen from being elected. It was a successful tactic. But from November 2018 on, he was at the centre of the Yellow Vest protests, beginning spontaneously after the government announced an increase in fuel taxes beginning January 1, 2019. Both the Duke of Anjou and the Count of Paris, the Orleanist claimant to the French Throne, spoke out in support of the protesters.
Meanwhile, Primarily Islamic immigration continued, and with it a rise in crime, the occasional sensational murder, burning and vandalism toward churches, and on and on. Finally, on April 21, 2021 — the 60th anniversary of the unsuccessful coup in Algiers — 20 retired generals signed an open letter to Macron and the government:
The situation is critical; France is in peril, threatened by several mortal dangers. We, who even in retirement remain soldiers of France, cannot, under the current circumstances, remain indifferent to the fate of our beautiful country.
Our tricolour flags are not simply a piece of cloth; they symbolise the tradition, throughout the ages, of those who, regardless of their skin colour or beliefs, have served France and given their lives for her. On these flags, we find, in gold letters, the words “Honour and Fatherland.” And our honour today lies in denouncing the decay that afflicts our nation.
– This disintegration, disguised as anti-racism, serves a single purpose: to create unease, even hatred, between communities on our soil. Today, some speak of racialism, indigenism, and decolonial theories, but through these terms, it is racial war that these hateful and fanatical proponents desire. They despise our country, its traditions, its culture, and want to see it dissolve by tearing away its past and its history. Thus they attack, through the medium of statues, ancient military and civilian glories, subjecting words spoken centuries ago to present-day analysis.
– This disintegration, coupled with Islamism and suburban hordes, is leading to the detachment of numerous parts of the nation, transforming them into territories subject to dogmas contrary to our constitution. Yet, every French citizen, regardless of their belief or lack thereof, is at home throughout France; there cannot and must not be any city, any neighborhood where the laws of the Republic do not apply.
– Disintegration, because hatred is overcoming fraternity during demonstrations where the government uses law enforcement as auxiliary agents and scapegoats against French citizens in yellow vests expressing their despair. This is happening while infiltrated and hooded individuals are vandalizing businesses and threatening these same law enforcement officers. Yet, these officers are simply following the directives, sometimes contradictory, given by you, the government.
The dangers are mounting, the violence is increasing day by day. Who would have predicted ten years ago that a teacher would one day be beheaded outside his school? Yet we, servants of the Nation, who have always been ready to risk our lives for the sake of our commitment — as required by our military status — cannot remain passive spectators in the face of such actions.
Therefore, those who govern our country must find the courage necessary to eradicate these dangers. Often, this simply requires the firm application of existing laws. Remember that, like us, a large majority of our fellow citizens are exasperated by your evasiveness and your culpable silence.
As Cardinal Mercier, Primate of Belgium, said: ‘When prudence is everywhere, courage is nowhere.’ So, ladies and gentlemen, enough hesitation, the hour is grave, the task is colossal; do not waste time and know that we are ready to support policies that will take into consideration the safeguarding of the nation.
On the other hand, if nothing is done, laxity will continue to spread inexorably in society, ultimately causing an explosion and the intervention of our active comrades in a perilous mission to protect our civilizational values and safeguard our compatriots on national territory.
As we can see, there is no more time to hesitate, otherwise tomorrow civil war will put an end to this growing chaos, and the dead, for which you will bear responsibility, will number in the thousands.
The response to this letter was predictable; there were enquiries and punishments for the serving officers who signed the latter — and an even more inflammatory letter came out the following month. But in the long run, nothing has happened or changed — and the proliferation of no-go zones and the like continues throughout Face, as it does throughout Western Europe. Those who have a problem with this are routinely denounced as racists.
Macron was returned with 58.55% of the votes cast, and happily returned to the Elysee. Tensions continue to mount in France, but Macron continues to enjoy the perks of his office. Ironically, when he describes himself as an Agnostic, these included canonries at several French Churches — and St. John Lateran in Rome. He must surely be the first of the Lateran canons to be able to say with a straight face: “Today, I engage in constant reflection on the nature of my own faith. My relationship to spirituality continues to nourish my thinking, but I do not make of it something I publicly brandish.”
As with most other Western European countries, France’s leadership is dancing on the edge of an abyss — an abyss of its own manufacture. When the inevitable regime change comes, may its wisest heads prevail. Above all, may there be a headlong return to the Faith which made France great, and of which she is called Eldest Daughter.
