U.S. conservative commentator Charlie Kirk has been nominated posthumously for the European Union’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, two weeks after he was assassinated during a university event in Utah.
The nomination was put forward by the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) Group in the European Parliament, which includes Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland Party.
The Sakharov Prize, named after Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, has been awarded annually since 1988 to individuals or groups defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Past laureates include Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, Denis Mukwege, and Nadia Murad. The award carries an endowment of 50,000 euros ($54,000).
ESN Co-President René Aust announced the nomination on Sept. 10, the day of Kirk’s death.
ESN member Marc Jongen, a lawmaker from Alternative für Deutschland, on Sept. 22 then formally introduced the nomination in the European Parliament, describing Kirk as “the most worthy person to receive the Sakharov Prize.”
“In a time where a fanatical wokist left is attempting to preserve its fading cultural hegemony through cancel culture, violence against dissenters, and state censorship, cynically disguised as defense of democracy, Charlie Kirk has sought open dialogue and exchange of arguments even with his most bitter opponents,” Jongen told his fellow EU lawmakers.
Kirk, 31, was cofounder and CEO of Turning Point USA, a conservative student organization launched in 2012. In a little more than a decade, he became a prominent figure in campus-based political activism and a close ally of U.S President Donald Trump.
He also hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show,” a widely followed podcast.
He was fatally shot on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University. Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old student, has been charged with Kirk’s murder.
Charges against Robinson include aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, two obstruction of justice counts, two witness tampering charges, and a violent offense committed in the presence of a child, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray has said.
Speaking at Kirk’s memorial event on Sept. 21, Trump said the activist was “violently killed because he spoke for freedom and justice, for God, country, for reason, and for common sense.”
Nominees
This year’s shortlist features several high-profile figures and movements.
The European People’s Party and the European Conservatives and Reformists Group nominated Andrzej Poczobut, a journalist sentenced to eight years in prison in Belarus for criticizing Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The Socialists and Democrats Group, alongside The Left, put forward journalists and humanitarian aid workers in the Gaza Strip, represented by the Palestinian Press Association, the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.
Other nominees include French Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, jailed in Algeria for “undermining national unity”; Serbian students who organized mass anti-corruption protests after a deadly building collapse; Budapest Pride, which defied a government ban to stage the largest march in its history; and Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli, along with the country’s pro-democracy protest movement.
The nomination process closed on Sept. 23, and lawmakers will vote on three finalists on Oct. 16. Political group leaders and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola are set to choose the laureate on Oct. 22.
The award ceremony will take place in Strasbourg, France, on Dec. 16.
Awarded jointly to Mandela and Soviet dissident Anatoly Marchenko in its first year, the Sakharov Prize is considered the EU’s highest honor for human rights.
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