In the list of speakers for the annual European Conservative Nationalist conference, NatCon, a gathering of far-right political figures that was set to run this Tuesday and Wednesday in Brussels, names appeared including Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister known for his illiberal governance; Mateusz Morawiecki, the former Polish prime minister; Eric Zemmour, a prominent French far-right commentator; and Nigel Farage, the former UK parliamentarian with strong eurosceptic views. The Brussels municipality of Saint Josse, one of the city’s communes, decided to cancel the summit even before it began. The mayor, Emir Kir, stated plainly that the far right is not welcome.
“Belgian police decided to shut down a NatCon conference in Brussels just two hours after it started. It seems free speech could not be tolerated any longer. The last time there was an attempt to silence me with police involvement, it was during confrontations with communists in 1988. We did not yield then, and we will not yield now,” Orbán claimed in a post on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
The organizers of the event, MCC Brussels, a think tank associated with the extreme-right, initially tried to book Concert Noble, a venue known for hosting a variety of political and cultural events. Their bid did not go forward after complaints and filings by several organizations, including a human rights league and Belgium’s antifascist coordination, which mobilized to block a fundraiser. The Brussels mayor, Philippe Close, also advised canceling the conference or ensuring a security operation capable of preventing disturbances. A second attempt to secure a venue, the Sofitel hotel, met the same refusal from the Etterbeek mayor.
Ultimately, the summit began on Tuesday at the Claridge hotel in Saint Josse, near the European district, though it did not attract much support. By mid-morning, only a few hours after the start, the mayor announced an immediate suspension of the conference to avert public disorder. “There is a risk of public disturbances if the conference continues,” he explained. “Based on the assessment of the police chief and the Threat Analysis Coordination Board, I have issued a police order prohibiting the event with immediate effect,” he announced shortly before a police deployment. Belgian press outlets reported that the gathering would proceed behind closed doors under these circumstances. [Attribution: local authorities and contemporary reporting on the event]