Belgium: Top Court Overrules Conservative Conference Shutdown

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Facts

• Mayor Emir Kir of Saint-Josse, a Brussels municipality, on Tuesday ordered police to shut down the National Conservatism Conference to 'guarantee public safety.'¹
• After the conference organizers challenged Kir's order, Belgium's supreme administrative court ruled that the alleged threat to public safety didn't come from the event but 'the reactions that its organization might provoke among opponents.'²
• Kir reportedly made his decision after a group of anti-fascist protesters — who had previously harassed the organizers and allegedly forced them to change the venue twice — threatened to spoil the conference.³
• Former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman, former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who was scheduled to speak on the second day of the conference, were among the conference speakers.⁴
• The event resumed on Wednesday, during which Orbán criticized the EU for withholding billions of dollars of Hungary's funds, defended Christian nationalist values, and questioned Brussels' decision to sanction Russia after it invaded Ukraine.⁵
• French right-wing journalist Eric Zemmour, who was scheduled to speak about Europe's migration and asylum issues before police blocked him, also returned on Wednesday. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called Tuesday's shutdown unconstitutional.⁶

Sources: ¹Independent, ²Guardian, ³FOX News, ⁴The Telegraph, ⁵Courthouse News Service and ⁶ABC News.

Narratives

• Right narrative, as provided by Europeanconservative. In their pursuit of complete control over ideas, liberal European elites think they can censor their way to victory in this summer's elections. Despite the court overruling this blatant violation of free speech, some of these leftist authoritarian leaders, namely Emir Kir in Belgium and the UK's Labor Party, still don't understand the electoral backlash coming this year. As they reveal their disdain for free speech ever more clearly, the citizens of Europe will respond with their vote.
• Left narrative, as provided by Independent. While the decision to shut down this conference was somewhat understandable, the result has been turning these fringe politicians into martyrs. National Conservatives differ on topics such as foreign intervention, but what they all have in common — from the US to Hungary — is discrimination against Muslims, immigrants, and progressives. If their martyr status leads to government power, they will try to outdo each other in oppressing any demographic they deem non-European.

Predictions