The barbaric assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah is not merely an American tragedy. It is a severe warning to conservatives across the entire world, including Portugal. What transpired was not an isolated act, but the reflection of a Western society increasingly dominated by a radical Left that seeks to silence by force what it cannot defeat in open debate.
Charlie Kirk embodied a generation of young men and women who refused to live on their knees before the dictates of political correctness. He declared without fear that the family is the cornerstone of society, that faith is the moral foundation of every nation, that the homeland must be defended with pride, and that liberty is not negotiable. Through Turning Point USA, he built a movement that unsettled the powerful because it awakened dormant consciences and provided resistance to the ideological hegemony of the universities.
His death is not simply a crime against one man. It is a deliberate attack against all who defend Western civilization, the natural order of things and the timeless values that sustained the greatness of Europe, America and nations such as Portugal.
When a man is murdered for professing conservative beliefs, what is at stake is the freedom of every citizen who seeks to live according to the principles inherited from their parents and forefathers.
Responsibility does not lie with the assassin alone. Decades of progressive propaganda and the systematic vilification of conservatives created the environment in which such violence became inevitable. The radical Left has taught generations to see patriots as enemies, Christians as fanatics and defenders of order as tyrants. This incendiary language, repeated daily in the media and in the universities, ultimately legitimized the hatred that culminated in Utah.
Equally impossible to ignore is the failure of institutions charged with guaranteeing public order. Security at events of this nature cannot be treated lightly. The State bears the duty to protect its citizens and to ensure that political violence is confronted without hesitation. When authority falters, extremists feel emboldened. Law and order are not mere expressions; they are the very pillars of communal life and essential conditions of liberty.
In Portugal we know this reality well. Those who defend national identity, cultural continuity, the traditional family or the sovereignty of the homeland are often ostracized, insulted and excluded from the public sphere. The dominant culture seeks to impose a relativist and globalist vision that dissolves borders, weakens values and threatens the freedom of those who dare to resist. What happened to Charlie Kirk demonstrates how far intolerance can advance when it is not confronted with firmness and when institutions fail to fulfill their role of guaranteeing order and justice.
As conservatives, whether in America, Portugal, Europe or Brazil, we must never apologize for believing in immutable truths. We must not yield to those who seek to destroy the family, erase faith, dissolve national sovereignty and transform society into an amorphous mass without identity, without roots and without values. Conservatism is not extremism. Extremism is the attempt to erase history, to disfigure our roots and to impose a cultural dictatorship in the name of a false tolerance.
The death of Charlie Kirk must not lead us to vengeance, but neither can it lead us to resignation. Rather, it must strengthen us in our mission to proclaim our convictions without fear, to demand that the law be enforced without complacency and to preserve the principles we inherited from generations that refused to bow before tyranny.
Let the memory of Charlie Kirk inspire conservatives in the United States, in Portugal and across the world never to forget that freedom is not a concession from governments nor a privilege of passing majorities. Freedom is a gift from God and a responsibility of every generation. It is the duty of institutions to guarantee order and justice. It is our duty to defend with courage faith, family, homeland, law and liberty.
Charlie Kirk has fallen, but his example rises as a banner. These pillars no assassin shall ever destroy.
César DePaço
Entrepreneur / Philanthropist
Consul ad honorem of Portugal (2014–2020)
Founder & CEO, Summit Nutritionals International Inc.
President, DePaço Foundation
Unwavering Defender of Law Enforcement and Conservative Principles