Belgian police seal off the entrance to the venue, not allowing anyone to enter on Day 1 of the National Conservatism Conference at the Claridge in Brussels, Belgium, on April 16, 2024. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)
Brussels police on April 16 blocked a conservative conference that featured senior figures from the political right in Europe, after the city’s mayor labeled the event as “far-right” and ordered that it be shut down.
Emir Kir, mayor of the Saint-Josse-ten-Noode district in Brussels, said in a statement posted on social media platform X that he had issued an order to ban the National Conservatism Conference, held at the Claridge hotel, “to guarantee public safety.”
The conference brought together conservative politicians, journalists, and academics who say they want to preserve national sovereignty, advocate conservative values such as border security, and disagree with what they see as attempts by the European Union to take powers away from individual states.
Footage shared on social media showed that British politician Nigel Farage was speaking at the conference on stage as police entered the venue.
“He is anti-democratic, anti-free speech and a great advert for Brexit,” Mr. Farage, a Brexit advocate, said in a post on X, criticizing Mr. Kir and his shutdown order.
“We are up against an evil ideology. We are up against a new form of communism,” Mr. Farage said from the stage.
Nigel Farage gives a speech on the first day of the National Conservatism Conference at the Claridge in Brussels on April 16, 2024. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)
Nigel Farage gives a speech on the first day of the National Conservatism Conference at the Claridge in Brussels on April 16, 2024. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)
Police Blockade
Police later left the venue and set up a police line outside, allowing people to exit but preventing anyone from entering.
“The police are not letting anyone in. People can leave, but they cannot return,” a post from the official National Conservatism X account reads. “Delegates have limited access to food and water, which are being prevented from delivery. Is this what city mayor [Emir Kir]is aiming for?”
The conference organizers denied that any public disturbance had taken place, insisting there were no grounds to shut down the event. They said they have mounted a legal challenge to the order, noting that the Claridge is the third venue to hold the event after two prior ones backed out under pressure from local politicians.
They said they intended to continue the two-day conference on April 17 despite the police request to shut it down.
“French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour was refused entry by the Brussels police, who continue to hold NatCon Brussels 2 under siege because of its conservative views,” the organizers said in a post on X. “We will ensure that, one way or another, you will get to hear his keynote address.”
The international arm of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) said it was backing the emergency legal challenge to the mayor’s decision to close down the conference while citing a copy of the order it had obtained.
According to a statement from ADF International, the mayor’s order cites as one of the reasons for shutting down the conference “that [NatCon’s] vision is not only ethically conservative (e.g. hostility to the legalisation of abortion, same-sex unions, etc.) but also focused on the defense of ‘national sovereignty’, which implies, amongst other things, a ‘Eurosceptic’ attitude.”
“It also states that some of the speakers ‘are reputed to be traditionalists’ and that the conference must be banned ’to avoid foreseeable attacks on public order and peace,’” the group added.
Belgian police enter the venue in a bid to cancel the event on the first day of the National Conservatism Conference at the Claridge in Brussels on April 16, 2024. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)
Belgian police seal off the entrance to the venue, not allowing anyone to enter on the first day of the National Conservatism Conference at the Claridge in Brussels on April 16, 2024. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)
‘This Is Like Nazi Germany’
The NatCon conference is organized by the Edmund Burke Foundation, a conservative think tank.
The event features a speaker list of notable conservative figures, including former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
“If only the globalists in Brussels put as much energy into securing our borders as they did in trying to gag conservatives, maybe our continent would be in a healthier state,” Ms. Braverman said from the stage.
Mr. Orbán, who is scheduled to deliver a keynote address on April 17, took to X to express his displeasure and compare the shutdown order to communist-era oppression.
“The Belgian police decided to shut down the @NatConTalk conference in #Brussels, just two hours after it started,” Mr. Orbán wrote. “I guess they couldn’t take free speech any longer. The last time they wanted to silence me with the police was when the Communists set them on me in ‘88. We didn’t give up then and we will not give up this time either!”
Conservative MP Suella Braverman, former UK Secretary of State for the Home Department, gives a speech on the first day of the National Conservatism Conference at the Claridge in Brussels on April 16, 2024. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)
Gerhard Müller, a German cardinal of the Catholic Church who spoke at the event, expressed shock at the police action, saying, “This is like Nazi Germany.”
Mr. Farage was asked by reporters while leaving the venue what had happened.
“Ask the Marxist mayor,” he replied.
“What’s happened here is now, on the stage where there [are] global media, we can see that legally held opinions from people who are going to win national elections [are] no longer acceptable here in Brussels, the home of globalism, because if you don’t agree with ever-closer Union, you must be a bad thing.”
Two prior venues pulled the plug on the event. Concert Noble, located near the European Commission and European Parliament, backed out on April 12 after protests from activists describing themselves as “anti-fascist.” The conference venue was then switched to the Sofitel in Place Jourdan, but that was also canceled.
The fate of day two of the event remains unclear, with the emergency legal challenge to the shutdown order remaining pending.
Tom Ozimek is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times. He has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education.
