Several European legislators expressed their frustration by pounding on their desks when they were not permitted a moment of silence to commemorate Charlie Kirk. Supporters of the American conservative figure gathered outside U.S. embassies across Europe and Africa. Additionally, global leaders praised Kirk, calling him both a friend and a source of inspiration.
The broad daylight murder of Kirk at a Utah university has had reverberations extending beyond the U.S., spotlighting the deep political divisions present in democracies worldwide, similar to those seen in America.
The waves of sorrow, rage, and defiance following his death highlighted his significant influence abroad, particularly among various right-wing groups such as white Afrikaners in South Africa, European anti-immigration factions, South American libertarians, and Middle Eastern ultranationalists. In turn, these events provided these groups with an opportunity to voice grievances against their political adversaries.
“Charlie Kirk’s death is a consequence of the global hate campaign perpetrated by the progressive-liberal left,” wrote Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s populist prime minister. Orbán, much like Kirk, has been an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, and shared his thoughts on platform X.
The reaction from right-wing groups to Kirk’s demise underscores the spread and growing influence of conservative and nationalist ideologies across the globe. As a Christian conservative, fervent defender of gun rights, and critic of political elites, Kirk exemplified the ways in which political discussions are increasingly transcending international borders.
Grief but also anger
Authorities say Kirk was killed by a single shot while taking questions during an outdoor event Wednesday at Utah Valley University.
People around the world, regardless of their political affiliations, expressed shock over such brutal violence occurring during a public discourse, and politicians from various parties condemned the murder.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain’s left-leaning Labour Party, called it “heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband,” adding: “We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear — there can be no justification for political violence.”
Kirk wasn’t a household name outside the United States, but he had a fervent following among supporters abroad and a big social-media presence. He spoke in the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea this year, and his Turning Point USA has international offshoots.
In the wake of his killing, many political figures and commentators on the right took aim at their political opponents, calling members of the left “the enemy” and vowing “resistance” against their foes.
“The left is, at all times and in all places, a violent phenomenon filled with hatred,” wrote Argentine President Javier Milei, a radical libertarian, on X alongside a photo of him, Trump and Kirk. Milei has repeatedly railed against Socialists, feminists and transgender people and praised Trump’s MAGA movement for fighting what he calls “woke ideology.”
In Berlin, about 150 people held a vigil in Kirk’s honor outside the U.S. Embassy on Thursday, and there were minor clashes with protesters, police said, testifying to the divisions.
In the European Union’s Parliament, dozens of rank-and-file lawmakers banged their hands angrily on their desks on Thursday after the parliament’s vice president denied an effort by Swedish member Charlie Weimers, of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, to lead a moment of silence honoring Kirk in the chamber.
Seen as inspiration and an ally
Some rising young political stars who might be seen as international counterparts to the 31-year-old Kirk spoke of the inspiration they would take from his legacy.
Nikolas Ferreira, who received the most votes of any federal lawmaker in Brazil’s last election, posted on social media that Kirk’s death “cries out against injustice and awakens hearts.”
“They want to silence us, but what they achieved was to awaken us. From every tear, courage is born; from every injustice, resistance is forged,” the 29-year-old former YouTuber said.
In South Africa, the assassination has resonated with white conservative groups who claim that South Africa’s Black-led government is pursuing an anti-white agenda. The government has strongly rejected those allegations and denounced “misinformation” from South African and American conservatives as intended to undermine a majority-Black country.
Kirk voiced support of Trump’s program that offered refugee status in the U.S. to members of South Africa’s white Afrikaner minority, and said earlier this year that the United States needed more white, Christian South Africans to come.
The AfriForum group, an Afrikaner lobby group, held a small vigil for Kirk outside the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria. Its youth wing said his killing was “a wake-up call that points to a global intolerance towards conservative thinking.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the most religious and nationalist government in Israel’s history, called Kirk a “defender of our common Judeo-Christian civilization.”
“Charlie was more than a friend of Israel. He was a great champion of our shared roots and values,” Netanyahu, a polarizing leader who has ruled Israel nearly uninterrupted for the last 16 years, said in a post on X.
Other figures on the right offered more somber words.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, one of the European leaders who is seen as most friendly with Trump, said she was “shocked” about the killing of Kirk.
“An atrocious murder, a deep wound for democracy and for those who believe in freedom,” she wrote on X. “My condolences to his family, to his loved ones, and to the American conservative community.” ____
Associated Press writers Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa; Brian Melley in London; David Biller in Rome; Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Gabriela Sá Pessoa in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.
