At a recent international gathering of far-right parties in Madrid, one name echoed across all languages spoken: Charlie Kirk.
André Ventura, leader of Portugal’s rapidly growing far-right party, Chega, energized the Madrid crowd by expressing outrage over the assassination of Mr. Kirk, a prominent conservative youth organizer in the United States. ‘This is mobilizing,’ Ventura declared.
Ventura noted the shift, stating that while the left typically elevates victims to hero status, the right and conservatives are now following suit. He urged right-wing leaders to honor Kirk’s memory and strategically utilize his name.
As President Trump arrives in Europe for a state visit, a wave of conservative passion is sweeping the continent. Hard-right parties are capitalizing on Kirk’s death, using it as a central rallying cry. After years of portraying themselves as victims, Europe’s right-wing movements are experiencing a surge in popularity, winning elections, attracting young voters, and enjoying Trump’s endorsement.
Experts suggest that framing Kirk’s assassination this way perfectly aligns with the far right’s long-standing, often embellished, narratives of being persecuted and marginalized.
Marta Lorimer, a Cardiff University politics lecturer and expert on Europe’s far right, explained, ‘There is a common narrative across the far right of victimization, and this is one of the reasons this is so attractive to latch on to. It says, ‘Look, not only have we been excluded, but now we’re also being murdered.’ ‘
On Sunday, Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s surging far-right Vox party and host of the event, asserted that Kirk’s assassination was not an isolated incident. He declared, ‘We know they don’t kill us because we are fascists; they call us fascists so they can kill us.’
Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, revered by Europe’s right, opened her video address by honoring Charlie Kirk, noting it served as a reminder ‘on which side there is violence and intolerance.’
Image: A crowd in Madrid mourns Charlie Kirk outside the U.S. Embassy last week.
Tom Van Grieken, head of a secessionist Flemish party from Belgium, told the crowd that the right wing would win over Europe with ideas, not ‘with bullets like they did with Charlie Kirk.’
The message about Mr. Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, resonated around the European far-right echo chamber.
Right-wing members of the European Parliament protested vigorously when denied a moment of silence for him in Strasbourg, France. They contrasted this with the attention given to George Floyd, stating, ‘Because Black lives matter, as is well known,’ as Afroditi Latinopoulou, leader of Greece’s Voice of Reason party, said in Madrid, ‘but not the lives of whites. Enough is enough.’
In London on Saturday, over 100,000 demonstrators participated in a rally organized by far-right activist Tommy Robinson. A young French activist dedicated his attendance as an ‘homage to Charlie Kirk.’ Elon Musk, connecting via video, called the left ‘the party of murder’ and urged protesters to ‘fight back’ or ‘die.’
For decades, Europe shunned its far-right parties, establishing strict barriers to keep them from power. That era is now over. Hard-line stances against immigration have gained mainstream acceptance, as have hard-right leaders. Prime Minister Meloni, the first politician with neo-fascist roots to lead a major European nation, is viewed as a pioneer.
More traditional conservative parties, striving for relevance, have sought alliances with these groups, sparking debates about whether such moves legitimize or normalize extremist ideologies. In France and Germany, support for formerly taboo parties continues to grow, fueled by encouragement from the United States under Mr. Trump.
Image: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni honored Mr. Kirk in a recent speech.
Speaking in Munich in February, Vice President JD Vance implicitly defended Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany, asserting, ‘There is no room for firewalls.’ Elon Musk was even more direct, posting, ‘Only the AfD can save Germany.’ Kirk’s transformation into a Che Guevara-like figure for the right marks a new phase in this trend.
For decades, the European far right maintained its political existence in the cold through a culture of martyrdom. Spanish conservatives invoked the memory of political prisoners and Catholics killed by Communists during the Spanish Civil War. More recently, Mr. Abascal referenced Kirk’s death to recall decades of terrorism by a separatist movement that targeted nationalists. In Italy, Ms. Meloni was raised to revere fascists killed by partisans and hard-right militants killed by leftist extremists during the turbulent 1970s.
While these stories of persecution motivated marginalized nationalist groups, they rarely resonated across borders. Efforts to transform the anti-establishment wave of the past decade into an international movement have also struggled. After leaving the White House in 2017, American populist Steve Bannon traveled Europe, attempting to recruit right-wing leaders for his ill-fated ‘The Movement’ venture.
Mr. Bannon ‘was for his own glory,’ said Hermann Tertsch, a member of the European Parliament with Vox. He added that the mobilization around Mr. Kirk was different because the influencer connected with a burgeoning, more online community of young conservatives. Mr. Tertsch noted that Mr. Kirk was a figure sought out by leaders at conservative conventions in the United States.
Mr. Ventura, from Chega, added that the assassination, captured on video and instantly shared in a global ‘image culture,’ contributed to Kirk becoming such a potent symbol. He also suggested, ‘maybe because it happened in the United States.’
Image: London protesters displayed a picture of Mr. Kirk at a rally led by far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Young nationalists across Europe consistently state that the United States under Mr. Trump has surpassed the Old World in populism and emerged as a global influencer. Now, in Mr. Kirk, whose views on immigration, women, and Islam alienated some liberals, they have found a global martyr.
‘He was a model,’ said César Enrique Pintado Planell, 29, a former spokesman for La Revuelta (The Revolt), a youth organization closely tied to Vox.
He admired Kirk’s approach of engaging on university campuses, something the far right in Spain is ‘still in their first steps of doing.’ He recalled Kirk’s final social media post, where the American conservative urged the politicization of the killing of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte, N.C., light rail train. ‘This is similar,’ Mr. Planell stated. ‘If we don’t speak about what happened to Charlie, nothing will change.’
At a booth selling ‘Make Spain Great Again’ caps, Rocío López Belmonte, 28, expressed her shock over the assassination and shared Kirk’s translated posts. When asked if Spain had a similar figure, she pointed to David Santos, 41, who was selling hats behind her. ‘He’s a YouTuber,’ she noted. ‘He’s famous.’
Mr. Santos, with a smaller following than Mr. Kirk, hopes to emulate his path. He recounted being ‘insulted, threatened,’ particularly after streaming anti-establishment views from a Spanish town where hard-right groups, encouraged by Vox, pursued migrants after an older man was beaten. He concluded that Kirk’s assassination has resonated deeply with the hard right, both in Spain and globally. ‘I will talk about it,’ he said, ‘as soon as I get the chance.’
Image: A makeshift memorial for Mr. Kirk was set up outside the U.S. Embassy in Berlin last week.
José Bautista contributed reporting from Madrid.