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A Belgian mayor has tried to shut down a European far-right conference, signalling increased anxiety among establishment parties about the movement’s rising popularity ahead of EU elections in June.
The National Conservatism conference was disrupted on Tuesday after the mayor of a Brussels district, Emir Kir, an independent politician and former Socialist, issued a ban on the gathering “to guarantee public safety”, without giving further details.
Several attendees criticised the move as an infringement of free speech, at a time when far-right parties are on the rise in polls ahead of elections to the European parliament in June.
Among the speakers were former UK home secretary Suella Braverman and longtime Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, who was giving a speech inside the conference venue when security forces delivered the order to shut down the event.
Farage told journalists: “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 globalisation. Because if you don’t believe in ever closer union you must be a bad thing.”
The ban also drew condemnation from Belgium’s federal government, which was not involved in the order. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called the ban “unconstitutional” and said the crackdown on the conference was “unacceptable”.
“Municipal autonomy is a cornerstone of our democracy but can never over-rule the Belgian constitution guaranteeing the freedom of speech and peaceful assembly since 1830,” De Croo wrote on X.
The conference had already been mired in difficulties, after two venues backed out of hosting it at the last minute. Organisers announced it would be held at the Claridge hotel in northern Brussels hours before its official start.
While the conference inside continued after the ban was imposed, a line of police officers blocked anyone from entering, including journalists and scheduled speakers such as Patricia Chagnon-Clevers, an MEP from the French far-right party Rassemblement National, whose figurehead is Marine Le Pen.
French ex-presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, who was among those prevented from entering the venue, told journalists outside that Europe was “a continent where you can’t express yourself freely anymore”.
“It’s accepted in Europe that we invented the idea of freedom of speech, independently of what speech that is,” said Zemmour, whose Reconquête party is polling at 6.5 per cent in France.
“It’s a shame for Brussels, and all of Europe, to see that our constitution, liberty of speech and liberty of gathering are now all of a sudden not possible anymore”, said Dominiek Lootens-Stael, a member of the Flemish nationalist and far-right Vlaams Belang party, who also could not enter the building.
Speakers inside the conference discussed topics including halting immigration and promoting family values by having more children. They also criticised closer integration among EU members, and the EU’s climate policies.
It was unclear whether the event would be able to continue for a scheduled second day. Mateusz Morawiecki, the former Polish prime minister, told the Financial Times he did not know if he would be able to speak on Wednesday.
The ultraconservative politician and former dissident under communism said liberals were trying to “blackmail” political opponents. “I was a freedom fighter in the ’80s and I haven’t seen such censorship since then in Europe.”
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