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Brussels police shut down conservative conference

Occam's Banana

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https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1780278346061959570
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Mayor sends police to ban and shut down NatCon Brussels conference as Antifa gathers outside
https://humanevents.com/2024/04/16/...-conservatism-conference-move-to-shut-it-down
{Jessica Barshis | 16 April 2024}

[some matter hidden to save space - OB]

Police in Brussels stormed the National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) just after it began on Tuesday, disallowing people from entering the venue. Members of Antifa also surrounded the venue.

Authorities have stated that they ordered the event to be shut down to "guarantee public safety" after leftists had allegedly threatened to protest it "violently."

One speaker at the event, Ralph Schöllhammer, told Human Events, “It is very frustrating that nobody within the Brussels media and political establishment can be found to defend a conference whose participants are trying to foster an open debate about the future of Europe and that includes elected MEPs. This is precisely what is meant by ‘defending democracy’ by the Left and their supporters in the legacy media: shut down any opinion that differs from their own.”

Antifa protesters gathered outside to confront attendees when they exited the building. The Post Millennial Senior Editor Andy Ngo obtained exclusive footage of the incident.

 
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1780300980627640494
Exclusive video: “Fascists have no place in our country,” declared an Antifa speaker at the direct action outside the Brussels venue for the banned @NatConTalk conference. “I have myself been called a child groomer, a pedophile.”

The conservative conference features keynote speeches from @PM_ViktorOrban, @Nigel_Farage, @SuellaBraverman, @ZemmourEric & others. Venues repeatedly canceled last minute after facing pressure from leftists & officials. Mayor @emir_kir then issued an order to ban the event even as it was already proceeding. Belgian police blocked attendees from going inside today.
Senior Senate staff member Rachel Bovard provided live updates from the grounds of the conference online.

Mayor of the area of Brussels where the conference was held, Emir Kir, stated: "I issued an order from the mayor to ban the 'National Conservatism Conference' event to guarantee public safety.”

"In Etterbeek, Brussels City and Saint-Josse, the far-right is not welcome."

This will have been the third venue that NatCon would be kicked out of after Brussels mayors rejected the first two options.

Nigel Farage, ex-leader of the Brexit Party in the UK, gave the opening address, commending the owners of the venue that did allow NatCon to host its event, and reported that the owners were threatened for doing so.

"We give huge thanks to the Tunisian owner of this business for his courage and allowing free speech to take place...They've told this Tunisian owner, who believes in free speech, that if he carries on with this conference, they'll make sure he will go out of business," he said.

 
https://twitter.com/NatConTalk/status/1780220758406410470
Also slated to speak were former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban, per The Independent.

Farage likened the police action to the "old Soviet Union."

"At the meeting, over the next two days, you’ve got the prime minister of Hungary, you’ve got a bishop, you’ve got members of the European royal families coming, well-known international businessmen and women, politicians, leaders of parties that will win European elections in countries this year in June.

"And yet, because they are questioning ever-closer union, because they are questioning globalism, they are literally being shut down."

The conference stated online that they would be launching legal action against Kir's order.

“There is no public disturbance and no grounds to shut down a gathering of politicians, intellectuals, journalists, students, civic leaders, and concerned citizens," they said. "The police entered the venue on our invitation, saw the proceedings and the press corps, and quickly withdrew. Is it possible they witnessed how peaceful the event is?"

ADF International also announced they would be joining an "emergency legal challenge" against Brussels authorities.

The police also reportedly blocked lawyers for the host of the event, Edmund Burke Foundation, from entering the building, along with Members of the European Parliament.

 
https://twitter.com/rachelbovard/status/1780227128350363957


https://twitter.com/rachelbovard/status/1780211450885091471
Edmund Burke Foundation chair @yhazony explains that while the Brussels police have an order to shut down the event for “creating a public disturbance,” they came in and got scared because people filmed them so are now menacing people from outside the building. Which seems on point for Europeans in almost every respect
Even the liberal Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo called the situation "unacceptable."

"What happened at the Claridge today is unacceptable. Municipal autonomy is a cornerstone of our democracy but can never overrule the Belgian constitution guaranteeing the freedom of speech and peaceful assembly since 1830. Banning political meetings is unconstitutional. Full stop," he posted to X.
 
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible...

We forget so easily that the default state of Europe has always been war.

If you think the media went batshit crazy with covid, or with Trump... well, I now think I'll actually live to see the point where the US goes completely bankrupt, stops funneling dollars into Europe's furnace, and the Europeans go back to shoveling their youth into it. Our media is going to go full Orwellian. We're going to be told 24/7 that eating the bugs is the only way to scratch together the funds to stop the apocalypse. Hitler is going to be mentioned more in a week of TV than he has been in the last 80 years.

It's going to be important for us to be there telling everyone we can that they've been picking a scab for a century, that they had decades to back off, and that there's only one way to deal with tyrants in the end.
 
https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1780267859844927791
to: https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1780267859844927791
{Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger | 16 April 2024}

This is outrageous totalitarianism and must be condemned by all Western political leaders, no matter where you sit on the political spectrum.

Police officers in Brussels shut down a conservative political gathering while former UK politician @Nigel_Farage was on stage.

This is the kind of thuggish gangsterism that we rightly associate with Nazism and Communism.

Shame on the police and mayor of Brussels for this totalitarian tactic!

"The police document," reports The Telegraph, "suggested speeches by speakers including Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman could lead to public disorder or display racist and homophobic views."

Apparently, the police have, for now, allowed the conference to go on.

But they have blocked any new people from entering.

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This goes far beyond "cancel culture."

This is the mayor of Brussels, the seat of the European Union's government, preventing conservatives from their Constitutionally protected right to free speech.

The leaders of the Western world have lost their minds.

Here is the dictator-thug responsible for this outrageous violation of freedom at the heart of Europe's supposedly liberal democracy.

Shame on you @emir_kir! You are no better than the Nazis and Communists who repressed their political enemies!

THE STORY GETS EVEN CRAZIER!!!

The Mayor of the City of Brussels, who just blocked access to a gathering of European conservatives hosted a radical Islamicist Iranian mayor last year!

"Tehran mayor Alireza Zakani was placed under sanctions by the UK in 2023 on the grounds that he had been 'involved in the commission of serious human rights violations or abuses in Iran.' He was also reportedly an Iranian paramilitary prior to becoming the capital city's mayor."

NIGEL FARAGE JUST NOW:

"That meeting, over the next two days, you've got the Prime Minister of Hungary; you've got a bishop; you've got members of the European royal families coming; well-known international businessmen and women; politicians; leaders of parties that will win European elections in countries this year in June.

"And yet, because they're questioning ever closer union, because they're questioning globalism, they're literally being shut down.

"This is like the old Soviet Union. No alternative view allowed.

"I tell you what. I might have had my reservations about the way the Conservative government have carried out Brexit. If anything convinced me we did the right thing, it was what happened in that place this morning."

[tweet w/video hidden to save space]
 
https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1780239852312908275
Bonkers!!!!

https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1780212238764089631


"There's a police line outside the door. If we leave, we won't be allowed back into the venue."

This is a direct violation of "Article 12 - Freedom of assembly and of association" in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is the EU's Bill of Rights.

It reads, "1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others."

The mayors of Brussels and Brussels City, @PhilippeClose & @emir_kir are breaking the law.

They are thugs and should be removed from office.

https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1780229380125393318


This is not just "cancel culture" — this is the weaponization of the police in direct violation of Europe's constitution.

THIS IS AN ATTACK ON FREE SPEECH AND DEMOCRACY OF ALL FREE PEOPLE

ASK YOURSELVES: @JoeBiden @BarackObama [MENTION=68062]EMMA[/MENTION]nuelMacron @Bundeskanzler [MENTION=34530]Rishi[/MENTION]Sunak [MENTION=29534]alexander[/MENTION]decroo [MENTION=18759]von[/MENTION]derleyen

Are you all on board with the police preventing your political opponents from being able to speak?

If you all do not stop this immediately, you are all implicated in this grotesque attack on freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and democracy.

Every Western leader, including all of the ones above, must take dramatic action to restore freedom and democracy to Belgium, where it is being violated in real time.

JOIN SPACES ON THIS URGENT ATTACK ON FREE SPEECH AND DEMOCRACY

HERE ARE THE ANTIFA FASCISTS WHO ARE CREATING A POLICE STATE IN BELGIUM

"For ten days, activists have been mobilizing to prevent the National Conservatism Conference from taking place in Brussels or in Belgium on April 16 and 17. This will bring together around forty personalities from the European and international extreme right such as Viktor Orbán, Eric Zemmour, Nigel Farage and Tom Vandendriessche. For us, anti-fascist collectives, those fighting the extreme right, feminists, political youth and trade unionists, this conference cannot take place!"

Here's my interview with @yhazony @NatConTalk:

Please listen to the chairman of the National Conservatism @NatConTalk conference @yhazony describe the outrageous and illegal police crackdown on his meeting happening right now in Belgium, Brussels.
 
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