When Charlie Kirk was murdered earlier this fall, he was upheld as a martyr by conservatives not just in America but globally. He had not hitherto been an especially international figure nor was his assassination particularly unique in a United States that has seen a recent escalation of political violence. Still, conservative politicians created a transnational cult around him.
In Germany, both Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) cast Kirk as one of their own: CDU legislator Caroline Bosbach presented him as a “fighter for Western values” while her colleague Johannes Volkmann called for a #JeSuisCharlieKirk movement; the ruling party’s youth organization mourned him as a slain fighter for freedom of speech.
The AfD went even further, with the nationalist party’s coleader Alice Weidel drawing attention to his murder during a debate on the federal budget and calling for an emulation of Donald Trump’s declaration of “antifa” as a terrorist entity. She even staged a vigil for Kirk in front of the US Embassy. Meanwhile, public media pressed left-wing Die Linke politician Heidi Reichinnek on her assessment of Kirk. Her apparent lack of sorrow over his death — citing his far-right views and justification of gun violence — sparked media outcry, depicting her reaction as a reflection of worsening polarization.
Yet it is unclear how much this topic truly concerns the German public. In a recent INSA poll asking Germans a rather leading question — whether they are “sorrowful” about Kirk’s murder — roughly one in three could not give any opinion; among those who self-identify as in the political “center,” 38 percent said they had no opinion. When the AfD’s deputy leader in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia sought to emulate Kirk’s speaking tours — preparing professional media to film the proceedings, organizing ads, and garnering some media attention…
Auteur: Felix Helberg
