On the evening of Thursday, February 12, in Lyon, Quentin Deranque was hospitalized in critical condition. The twenty-three-year-old neofascist—euphemized by the press as an “extreme-right-nationalist-identitarian-militant”—had sustained serious brain and skull damage during a confrontation between fascists and anti-fascists earlier that day.

On April 18, the student blockade of RTS (Radio Television of Serbia, state owned public radio and TV broadcaster), had already been ongoing for five days. On the street before the TV headquarters, people milled about happily, talking and enjoying the sunshine. In the leafy streets surrounding, people sipped coffees, and cats slept on top of Yugos. It was Good Friday, so the Orthodox church around the corner was packed.