History repeats itself: exactly one year ago, almost to the day, Erik Tegnér, editor-in-chief of the conservative investigative news outlet Frontières, was attacked by far-left activists while on vacation with his fiancée in a small village in Brittany.
On Thursday 6 August, he was insulted, accosted and threatened with being lynched by a mob of several dozen Antifa activists while visiting the island of Groix.
A Magazine Under Constant Fire
Erik Tegnér is a well-known figure in French right-wing political circles. He heads the magazine Frontières, known for its in-depth investigations into sensitive topics, which meticulously analyze and scrutinize the left and its various connections. The release of each issue of the magazine is accompanied by heated controversies and protests from those those it accuses of wrongdoing: mayors supporting Islamist organizations, corrupt lawyers perpetuating lax immigration policies and so on.
In April 2025, Frontières’ publication of an issue devoted to La France insoumise, titled LFI, the Party of the Foreigner, caused a stir, leading left-wing parliamentary staff and elected officials to demand the revocation of Frontières journalists’ press credentials at the National Assembly.
In June 2026, Tegnér was given a six-month suspended prison sentence for having published, a year earlier, a special issue on immigration titled Migrant Invasion. NGOs, Lawyers, Judges, Journalists, Smugglers: The Culprits, which included a list of lawyers specializing in immigration law and portrayed them as contributing to “migration overload”.
In this context, Tegnér – who also appears as a commentator on the right-wing channel CNews – is regularly targeted personally, as are his journalists, who have been the victims of several attacks. While they seek to defend their work in the name of press freedom, they receive support only from members of the National Right – the Rassemblement National (RN) or their allies in the Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR).
“I was attacked last night by 150 Antifa members on the island of Groix in Brittany while on vacation, a figure confirmed by surveillance cameras. A complaint has just been filed. Thank you for your messages of support. No one will ever silence me. Brittany deserves better!” Erik Tegnér wrote on X on the night of 5–6 August.
According to the prosecutor’s office, he contacted the gendarmerie shortly before 3 a.m. on Thursday. Arriving quickly on the scene, the gendarmes found between 100 and 150 people gathered around the port in small groups.
Tegnér stated that he had spent the evening in a bar with friends, was recognized, was heckled and insulted by a growing crowd and was pushed toward the harbor in order to return to his boat, which was moored nearby. He was met with shouts of “Erik, get out”, “You’re fascists” and “We’re going to lynch you”.
“They threw alcohol in my face; they jumped on me several times. They were holding me, shoving me around. The goal was to get rid of me”, he recounted. He also claimed that several individuals tried to push him toward the sea. “They pushed me all the way to the sea. They wanted to throw me into the water”, he continued.
Rising Far-Left Political Violence
Tegnér acknowledged that he was not personally injured, but feared the situation might escalate further. Some of his attackers reportedly mentioned the death of Quentin Deranque, a young nationalist activist who was lynched to death by Antifa members in Lyon a few months ago.
The video of the attack on Tegnér is still circulating on social media, with comments that also explicitly reference Quentin Deranque or call for Tegnér’s death: “You don’t negotiate with fascism—you eliminate it.”
For months, Tegnér has been sounding the alarm about the escalating use of violence by the far left.
Jordan Bardella, president of the RN, publicly expressed his support for Tegnér in a post on X: “The justice system must severely punish these extremists who have no place in French political life. It is time for French society as a whole to become aware of the danger of political violence from the far left!”