Vigils were held around the world for slain free speech advocate and Turning Point USA cofounder Charlie Kirk, offering a poignant demonstration that the power of his ideas reached far beyond America’s borders, and that good people around the world can unite in mourning for a young husband and father.
Madrid, Spain’s vigil for Charlie Kirk began within hours of his murder and grew steadily on Thursday, with a rally outside the U.S. Embassy where the participants chanted Kirk’s name, then observed a moment of silence in his memory:
On Thursday, the conservative Vox party – which is increasingly popular with Spanish youth – held a vigil and rally with speakers from Europe and the United States, including Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, who hailed Kirk as “America’s best and brightest young leader.”
In South Korea, conservative youth leaders established two memorials for Kirk: one in front of the statue of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Incheon, and one in front of the Sungnyemun Gate in Seoul.
Kirk visited South Korea and Japan the week before he was murdered. He said of his time at the Build Up Korea 2025 Forum: “I didn’t even have to think about where I was going because anywhere I went I knew it would be perfectly clean and safe. A lot of American cities are not like that.”
A massive rally was held in Kirk’s honor in London, organized by activist Tommy Robinson and the UK chapter of Kirk’s Turning Point organization. Robinson claimed “over a million” gathered for the rally, while the Metropolitan Police estimated about 110,000 attendees, and major media organizations spoke of “hundreds.”
Turning Point organized another large rally in Sydney, Australia:
@abcnewsaus A Brisbane vigil for Charlie Kirk was held on Sunday night, here is a look at the gathering. The 800-person crowd that gathered at UQ’s Great Court follows a similar vigil held in Sydney over the weekend for the American conservative figure. The University of Queensland said although the vigil was not a University approved event, it was organised by current and former students and security was present to ensure the safety of all participants. ️ Story by Lia Walsh. #CharlieKirk #Brisbane #Aussie #AusPol #CharlieKirkDebate
♬ original sound – ABC News Australia
Turning Point Australia director Joel Jammal said plans were in the works for Kirk and his wife Erika to visit Australia before he was assassinated.
“We were looking forward to bringing him out on tour because he was widely admired for his Christian values, a family man winning a noble fight to reconnect with politics,” Jammal said of Kirk.
Jamal saluted Kirk as a “great man” and a personal inspiration when he spoke at the candlelight vigil. “There will not be another man like Charlie Kirk,” he declared.
Several members of the fast-rising Alternative for Germany (AfD) party attended the Charlie Kirk vigil in Berlin, held in the spirit of “freedom, patriotism, and justice” outside the U.S. Embassy. One of the attendees was AfD lawmaker Beatrix von Storch, who has urged Pope Leo XIV to consider canonizing Kirk.
A joint vigil was held for Kirk and Charlotte train stabbing victim Iryna Zarutska in Vienna, Austria, on Friday. According to vigil organizer Martin Sellner, the Austrian chapter of the Antifa terrorist organization showed up to disrupt the rally, and later destroyed the candlelight memorial created for Kirk and Zarutska:
“On Friday, the American Embassy was the target of attacks and vandalism during commemorative events marking the cowardly murder of U.S. citizen Charlie Kirk. Candles and bouquets were destroyed, leaving a scene of destruction. Even more serious is that all this happened without intervention by the authorities,” said Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) General Secretary Chrisitian Hafenecker.
“When a politically motivated murder like that of Charlie Kirk deeply shocks the United States and, as a direct result, violence is perpetrated against memorial candles and flowers in front of the embassy in Austria, then all alarm bells should be ringing,” Hafenecker said.
An unexpectedly large crowd gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, for a spontaneous Charlie Kirk vigil on Thursday. The mourners laid flowers, candles, and handwritten notes at the embassy gates. The tribute does not appear to have been coordinated or arranged in advance.
International media organizations did not rush to provide photo or video coverage of these rallies. Some outlets, like the UK Independent reporting on the massive London rally, struggled to minimize the size of the events by claiming “hundreds” attended and avoiding wide-angle crowd shots that would reveal the true size of the vigil.
Tommy Robinson called certain British media out for giving absurdly low estimates of the crowd size of the London rally, when the truth was obvious to anyone who simply looked down on London from above.
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