Dozens of mourners gathered before the American embassy in Madrid, Spain, on Thursday night to honor the life of conservative commentator and activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated during a public appearance at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
Kirk was the founder of Turning Point USA, an organization dedicated to advancing conservative ideals among America’s youth. He also hosted an online program and regularly held speaking events to engage the public. His visit to Utah was part of a greater series of appearances on college campuses called the “American Comeback Tour,” in which students were encouraged to approach Kirk and debate political stances with him.
Kirk died on Wednesday after being shot in the neck while debating students. Law enforcement authorities identified the assassin on Friday as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson and announced that he is currently in custody. According to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R), police compiled evidence suggesting that Robinson targeted and killed Kirk for his conservative political beliefs.
Mourners first began honoring Kirk in Madrid on Wednesday, leaving a photo message reading “rest in peace” at the American embassy and candles. A more formal assembly occurred on Thursday in which dozens of Spaniards, many appearing to wear red “Make America Great Again” hats, brought flowers and candles to honor the public speaker.
The local outlet OK Diario described the event as being organized by “young patriots, sympathizers, and related collectives” and featured appearances by local conservative leaders, including the president of Vox Madrid, José Antonio Fúster.
“This homage is a cry against political violence and a call to defend the right to dissent without fear,” posters advertising the event read.
The conservative youth organizing group Revuelta also established a significant presence at the event and documented the vigil. Mourners shared candles and flowers as well as photos reading, “let us pray for the Kirks” and “generational beacon.”
Revuelta’s organizers shared on its social media accounts that Kirk, who was keenly interested in politics in the Hispanophone world, had invited the group to Turning Point USA events.
“For us, today’s homage to Charlie Kirk has a special feeling, as we had the privilege of being invited to his Turning Point event in Florida,” the party shared. “His charisma, his oratory, his capacity to create a youth and college movement from the ground up, managing to change the vote of millions of young people, is an example for any activist.”
“His assassination is a sign that the world does not want you to think freely or dissent from its dogmas,” the group added. “From today on, we will know how to give his testimony, with the joy and impetus that should characterize our spirit despite the adversity of the times.”
Fúster, the Vox official, offered remarks to the press honoring Kirk and condemning radical Marxists for fueling violence throughout the Ibero-American world. Vox is a populist conservative party that often dissents from the establishment, center-right Popular Party.
“Those who assassinated Fernando Villavicencio, those who killed Miguel Uribe, those who finished off Shinzo Abe, those who stabbed [Jair] Bolsonaro, those who shot at [President Donald] Trump ended the life of a good man,” Fúster lamented.
Fernando Villavicencio was the conservative frontrunner in the 2023 Ecuadorian president election. He was assassinated in front of a crowd while leaving a campaign event in August of that year. Miguel Uribe Turbay was the frontrunner in the 2026 Colombian presidential election. He was assassinated in front of a crowd during a campaign event in June. Abe, a longtime Japanese prime minister, was similarly shot during a campaign appearance in 2022. Bolsonaro survived an assassination attempt in 2018 by a socialist sympathizer who stabbed him in the abdomen, leaving him with severe health complications for life.
“Charlie Kirk, a man who only had the word. He went to campuses in the United States, to the universities infected by wokeism, only with his word and encouraged debate,” Fúster told attendees at the vigil on Thursday. “He always said that if we do not have the word, the day we stop debating, the day we stop talking, we have nothing and bad things happen. Someone was determined yesterday with his assassination to make bad things happen.”
“Charlie Kirk was a resource for many of us and yesterday was especially a bad day for my children, they are in that age, 20, 22 years old, who saw in him as a beacon,” he continued, predicting that “yesterday, thousands, dozens of thousands, possibly millions of Charlie Kirks were born, who are up to their noses with staying quiet and will use their word however they can to rebel against the dictatorship of progressivism, the dictatorship of this left, who will continue his battle.”
Political leaders and fellow conservatives throughout the Spanish speaking world expressed shock and grief at the assassination of Kirk on Wednesday, describing him as “one of us.”
“He was the victim of an atrocious assassination in the middle of a wave of left-wing political violence in the entire region,” Argentine President Javier Milei wrote in a statement expressing condolences. “The left is always, at all times and in all places, a violent, hate-filled phenomenon. The whole world lost an incredible human being.”
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