A highly anticipated conservative conference in Brussels is currently surrounded by police who are allowing attendees to leave but preventing re-entry in what is a local authority-backed effort to shut down a gathering of leading conservative figures.
‘NatCon Brussels 2’ is being held this week in the Belgian capital, and features high-profile conservative guest speakers from across the continent such as Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman and French politician Éric Zemmour, among others.
Organisers National Conservatism struggled to find a suitable venue for the event, with two previous sites cancelling the booking under pressure from left-wing organisations and local mayors, acting through the police.
A third venue agreed to host the conference, which is underway currently, but two hours into the event police arrived to notify the organisers that they were to shut it down.
Mayor of Saint-Josse, Emir Kir, tweeted that he issued the order to ban the event to guarantee “public safety”.
J'ai pris un arrêté du Bourgmestre pour interdire l'événement "National Conservatism Conference" pour garantir la sécurité publique.
A Etterbeek, à Bruxelles Ville et à Saint-Josse, l'extrême-droite n'est pas la bienvenue.
— Emir KIR (@emir_kir) April 16, 2024
It is understood that the police have blockaded the entrance of the Claridge event space and are allowing attendees to leave but are preventing entry or re-entry of those who have already left. Police also entered the conference while talks were underway but withdrew, all the while maintaining the barricade at the entrance.
Ahead of the event, left-wing Belgian groups penned an open letter decrying what they described as a “far-right” gathering.
“For us, as antifascists, anti-far-right collectives, feminists, young politicians and trade unionists, this conference cannot take place,” the letter reads.
“With entrance fees of up to 20,000 euros, this conference makes no secret of its desire to raise funds for future reactionary campaigns. But beyond that, its aim is to unite the forces of the European far right in a worrying context of European-wide upsurge. Among the people announced, all share a few basic commonalities: racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism, lgbtqia+phobias, conspiracism and climate scepticism.”
National Conservatism is receiving legal advice and have said they intend to challenge the order to shut down the conference.
“There is no public disturbance and no grounds to shut down a gathering of politicians, intellectuals, journalists, students, civic leaders, and concerned citizens,” the group posted on X.
“The police entered the venue on our invitation, saw the proceedings and the press corps, and quickly withdrew. Is it possible they witnessed how peaceful the event is?”
We are legally challenging the order to shut down #NatConBrussels2 at the new, third venue. There is no public disturbance and no grounds to shut down a gathering of politicians, intellectuals, journalists, students, civic leaders, and concerned citizens.
The police entered the… pic.twitter.com/oiVGfIfGlg
— National Conservatism (@NatConTalk) April 16, 2024
British politician Nigel Farage, who is also in attendance, thanked the Tunisian owner of the current venue “for his courage and allowing free speech to take place”.
“They’ve told this Tunisian owner, who believes in free speech, that if he carries on with this conference, they’ll make sure he will go out of business,” Mr Farage said.
The move to shut down the conference has drawn criticism on social media from across the political spectrum, with many considering the development to be detrimental to free speech.
Hmm, so the police in Brussels have time to shut down NatCon, an international conservative conference where participants are there to peacefully and transparently share their views and experiences while they have no time to shut down the elaborate infrastructure of hard core…
— Ayaan Hirsi Ali (@Ayaan) April 16, 2024