Quentin Deranque, 23, died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people on the sidelines of a protest against a politician from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party in the southeastern city of Lyon last week.

His death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year, in which the far-right National Rally (RN) party is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job.

Deranque’s supporters have called for a march in his memory on Saturday in Lyon.

The Greens mayor of Lyon asked the state to ban it, but Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declined to do so.

Nunez said he had planned an “extremely large police deployment” with reinforcements from outside the city to ensure security at the rally expected to be attended by 2,000 to 3,000 people, and likely to see counter-protesters from the hard left show up.

Jordan Bardella, the president of anti-immigration RN, has urged party members not to go.

“We ask you, except in very specific and strictly supervised local situations (a tribute organised by a municipality, for example), not to attend these gatherings nor to associate the National Rally with them,” he wrote in a message sent to party officials and seen by AFP.

Two people, aged 20 and 25, have been charged with intentional homicide in relation to the fatal beating, according to the Lyon prosecutor and their lawyers.

A third suspect has been charged with complicity in the killing.

Jacques-Elie Favrot, a 25-year-old former parliamentary assistant to LFI lawmaker Raphael Arnault, has admitted to having been present at the scene but denied delivering the blows that killed Deranque, his attorney said.

burs-ah/yad