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The mayor of Brussels on Tuesday dispatched police to break up a rally of prominent conservatives from across Europe, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a self-proclaimed “anti-woke” group, who said in front of the presidential election that “the far right is They are not welcome.” The authorities quickly retreated.
Emile Kiel The Socialist mayor of central Brussels, where the rally took place, ordered the National Conservative Congress to be shut down, citing “public safety” reasons. But critics said Mr. Kyl’s order only amplified one of the rally’s main themes: that cancel culture is running wild, targeting conservative voices.
“This is what we are up against. We are up against an evil ideology. We are up against a new form of communism,” declared Britain’s Nigel Farage. Mr Farage, a former member of the European Parliament and champion of national sovereignty who helped push his country to leave the European Union, was preparing a speech when authorities arrived. “This is like the former Soviet Union. Alternative views are not allowed,” he said.
A small group of Belgian police officers entered the conference venue, but quickly left after telling organizers the event was banned, leaving conservative participants gleefully denouncing left-wing intolerance.
The police intervention drew a sharp rebuke from Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, a center-right opposition member of the Socialist Party.in Post on social media, He said Belgium’s constitution guarantees freedom of speech and that “banning political gatherings is a violation of the constitution.” Full stop. He added that what happened at the conference venue was “unacceptable.”
Hungary’s Orbán, who has sought to position himself as the leader of a pan-European movement against what he calls “woke Goliath,” did not appear to be at the venue when police arrived.But he posted Messages on social media platform X It compares the failed intervention to the actions of Hungarian communist authorities in 1988, when security forces tried in vain to silence dissident voices before the collapse of communism.
“We didn’t give up then, and we won’t give up this time!” Orbán wrote about X.
Hungarian media, controlled by Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party, seized on the unrest in Brussels as evidence of the importance of Hungarian leaders as a threat to the European system. “The whole of Brussels is working to silence Viktor Orbán,” claimed a headline on Magyar Nemzet, an online news site and propaganda megaphone.
The event in Brussels was the latest in a series of conservative conferences, including one held successfully in Brussels two years ago, with the declared goal of “strengthening the principles of national conservatism” It was sponsored by the Edmund Burke Foundation, an organization with
Yoram Hazeny, the foundation’s Israeli-American director, said in Brussels on Tuesday that police officers sent to stop the event were surrounded by televisions as they entered the building and were “scared” to leave. . He said police told him the two-day conference would be “gradually closed down” and urged participants not to leave the building as they would not be allowed to re-enter.
The conference was originally scheduled to be held at the Concert Noble, an upscale event space that was once a ballroom. However, due to protests from left-wing activists, reservations were lost and the event was moved to a luxury hotel. After pressure from another Brussels mayor, he also canceled his hotel, so he settled on Claridge, an event space and nightclub near the European Union headquarters.
Kiel, the mayor of Brussels’ Saint-Josse-Tenn-Nord district, which includes Claridge, gave no explanation as to why he thought it was necessary to ban the conference, other than saying he “wanted to ensure the safety of our people.” I didn’t. safety. ” Authorities appeared concerned that radical left-wing activists might clash with conservative protesters.
A group called the Belgian Anti-Fascist Coordination said “hate speech is never justified by freedom of speech” and vowed to disrupt the rally. He called for a protest late Tuesday near the Conservative Congress.
Many of the speakers scheduled to attend the rally were from the mainstream, such as former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who resigned after his right-wing Law and Justice Party lost its parliamentary majority in October’s general election. He was a far-right politician.
But some of them were found guilty of inciting racial hatred after saying on television in 2020 that unaccompanied child migrants were “thieves,” “rapists” and “murderers.” Also included was Eric Zemmour, a far-right candidate for the 2022 French presidential election. Organizers said police guarding the venue prevented Zemur from entering.
Suela Braveman, Britain’s former home secretary and darling of the hard-line anti-immigration wing of the ruling Conservative Party, said after a brief intervention by police: If we tried to make conservatives laugh, maybe our continent would be in a healthier state. ”
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