(Blacksburg) “Take the flag”: back on university campuses, the conservative movement of Charlie Kirk attracts an audience already sensitive to his ideas, but particularly mobilized after the assassination two weeks earlier from this icon of the Trumpist Youth.
“He dropped off the flag, I have to take it back and brandish it,” Kieran Owen, a young American high school student, confides among the 2,500 people gathered in an auditorium at Virginia Tech University, near Washington.
At the entrance, a tent is erected, printed from the slogan “demonstrate me that I am wrong” (” ME Wrong ), Identical to that under which the ultra -conservative influencer was mowed by a bullet in the neck on another university campus of the country.
On each seat, a poster with its portrait against the backdrop of the American flag.
In the public, dozens and dozens of red caps with the inscription ” Make America Great Again (Resting its greatness to America), famous slogan of President Donald Trump. On the organizers’ shoulders, a white t-shirt barred with the word ” Freer (“Freedom”) like the one Charlie Kirk had the day he was killed.
Two men in khaki uniform, twins in hand, watch from the roof of the stone building.
Kieran Owen discovered Charlie Kirk at the time of the 2024 presidential election on social networks.
“Most important than ever”
Photo Alex Wroblewski, agency France-Presse
Back on university campuses, the conservative movement of Charlie Kirk attracts an audience already sensitive to his ideas.
“He made a livestream that I followed until 1 a.m. (…) He had a sense of persuasion, “said the 16 -year -old high school student with a shy voice.
Sensitive in particular to his faith and his anti -avoly positions, he was already considering making the trip. But “what happened has awake something in me”.
“I was very shocked. There is no room for that in America, ”he said, referring to political violence, which marked the history of the United States.
Toby Kinsinger, a friend of the same age who accompanied him from the south of Virginia, had “never come before” to this type of gathering.
Both imagine themselves “completely” get involved, once at the university, in Turning Point USA, the movement founded by Charlie Kirk, which has become the benchmark for American conservative youth in ten years.
Like Kayleigh Finch, she freshly left the school, who grew up in a conservative family.
Cross around the neck, dark t-shirt sporting the word “Jesus”, she did not leave ten hours by car during the day to discourage her from coming since the surroundings of Baltimore. For her, it is “more important today than ever to attend this kind of events, to be present to show that you cannot silence a majority like this”.
“Perpetuate the inheritance”
At 18, Levi Testerman also participated in his first political rally. “Two things that each American should know how to use: the holy Bible and a weapon. Neither is taught at school, ”wears his father’s t-shirt.
“I admired Charlie Kirk. I discovered it on Tiktok. I liked to see him go to university campuses, to speak to young people, to new American voters, ”he explains to AFP. “What happened really affected me. »»
His death “made me want to come even more here today to perpetuate the heritage he created. And change the opinions of more people, ”he continues.
A 66 -year -old retired, not politicized, Melissa Lucas Gardner is a new convinced.
“I didn’t even know who was Charlie Kirk. I had never seen it. I had never heard it until it happened. It created a whole new dynamic, ”she sums up at AFP.
“I am definitely a follower,” says the ex-police agent who has become a nurse, affected by “the mission he had given himself to bring young people first to faith”.
“You are the next Charlie,” says the republican governor of Virginie Glenn Youngkin, before inviting the Assembly to a collective prayer, hand in hand to the aisles.
