Europe’s conservative politicians are increasingly obsessed with online culture wars rather than broad projects for society. It reflects a postmodern shift in which once deep-rooted party organizations are replaced by skirmishes on social media.

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

See Full Page