A prominent German left-wing activist has had his visa revoked by the US Department of State for celebrating the assassination of Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk in posts on social media.
German media have identified the banned German as 60-year-old Mario Sixtus, one of several foreigners who reportedly had their visas removed.
On October 14, the Department of State announced it had identified a number of people “who are no longer welcome in the US” as “the United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans”.
The list published on X included nationals of South Africa and several Latin American countries as well as Sixtus. The Department of State wrote: “A German national celebrated Kirk’s death and attempted to justify his murder, writing ‘when fascists die, democrats don’t complain.’ Visa revoked.”
Sixtus, a former bass player in various punk bands and a screenwriter, rose to fame as one of the country’s leading hard-left online activists in the past years. He has also worked as a filmmaker for German State broadcaster ZDF and as a journalist for various newspapers.
As a stout “fighter against the Right”, Sixtus has a history of inflammatory posts on social media, which have included fantasies about “shoving an entire bicycle into the mouth of a Bavarian racist” and claiming that “Germany is majority right-radical and racist”.
German TV has interviewed Sixtus as an expert for “hatred on the web”.
Shortly after Kirk was assassinated while giving a speech at a university in Utah on September 10, Sixuts allegedly posted to his 36,000 followers on BlueSky: “When fascists die, democrats don’t complain.” The post was later deleted.
In response to questions about his wellbeing after the visa ban, Sixtus wrote on BlueSky: “Regarding the enquiries: I am in Berlin and I am fine. The weather is autumnal, the federal government is shamelessly creeping further and further to the Right, you can hear the Bild newspaper yapping in the distance, and I am drinking an espresso made from freshly ground beans (Lavazza Intenso). Everything is as usual.”
He is not the first prominent left-winger to get himself into hot water with derogatory remarks about Kirk.
Shortly after his shooting, members of US President Trump’s administration suggested that the head of ZDF’s Washington office, Elmar Theveßen, might have to leave the US following a series of incorrect claims about Kirk. Theveßen later admitted to his mistakes and asked to be forgiven.
