Police Block Conservative Conference Attended by Nigel Farage, Viktor Orban in Brussels

Brussels police on April 16 blocked a conservative conference that featured senior figures from the political right in Europe after the mayor ordered it shut down, stating that the “far-right is not welcome” there.

Emir Kir, the mayor of the Saint-Josse-ten-Noode district in Brussels, where the National Conservatism Conference was being held on April 16 at the Claridge hotel, said in a statement posted on X that he had issued an order to ban the event “to guarantee public safety.”

“In Etterbeek, Brussels City and Saint-Josse, the far-right is not welcome,” he added.

The conference brought together conservative politicians, journalists, and academics who say they want to preserve national sovereignty, advocate for conservative values, including 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 British politician Nigel Farage 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.

Related Stories

“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 Day 1 of The National Conservatism Conference at the Claridge in Brussels, Belgium, on April 16, 2024. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

Nigel Farage gives a speech on Day 1 of the National Conservatism Conference at the Claridge in Brussels, Belgium, on April 16, 2024. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

“The police are not letting anyone in. People can leave, but they cannot return,” the official National Conservatism account on X said in a post. “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 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.

“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,” per a press release from ADF International.

“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 Day 1 of the National Conservatism Conference at the Claridge in Brussels, Belgium, on April 16, 2024. (Omar Havana/Getty Images)

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)

The event features a speaker list of notable conservative figures, including former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

“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. Orban, 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. Orban 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 Day 1 of The National Conservatism Conference at the Claridge in Brussels, Belgium, 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,” he added.

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 anti-fascist activists. 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.