The venue for next week’s National Conservatism (NatCon) conference in Brussels announced on Friday afternoon that it had pulled the plug on the event after political pressure from the left-wing mayor of Brussels.
Some 500 attendees are due to hear speeches by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, French presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, Germany’s Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former MEP and Brexit Party founder Nigel Farage, and the previous UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman, among others. However, at the last moment, the Concert Noble venue in central Brussels told organizers that it was pulling out of hosting the conference.
The cancellation followed a report in The Brussels Times that several self-described antifascist groups were demanding the venue cancel the event and threatening protests in front of the building if the conference went forward. While the Brussels police told the organizers that they were confident that they could handle any demonstrations, the venue said that the office of the Socialist Party mayor of Brussels, Philippe Close, urged it to shut down the event. The mayor is in charge of policing in the city.
Conference chairman Yoram Hazony of the Edmund Burke Foundation said,
the reputation of Brussels as the home for European democracy is at stake when last minute attempts are made to suppress the speech of fifty of the most prominent public figures in Europe, for no reason other than their conservative political views. Europe must not descend into rule by thugs and ideologues.
Hazony told The Telegraph that the event will nevertheless be held in Brussels and will be “spectacular,” but
I just think that it is incredible that Brussels aspires to be the capital of a vast alliance of democracies, and they can’t tolerate in their own city an event with people who are basically conservatives who are critical of their leftie regime.
It’s just astonishing. I mean, if Brussels can’t host both sides of the argument, then maybe the capital of Europe can’t be in Brussels.
Frank Furedi, the executive director of MCC Brussels, the event’s co-sponsor, said:
The city of Brussels is occupied by forces hostile to free speech and democracy.
Tragically and shamefully, it has become apparent that the political establishment in Brussels is actively collaborating with left-wing extremists to prevent the free expression of political ideas and opinions in the city.
Clearly pressure and threats of violence from the radical Left has risen significantly since the Concert Noble venue last hosted the NatCon Brussels event in 2022. Hazony noted “it is particularly ironic that the day before our conference, Concert Noble is due to host a meeting on free speech.”
