'Like the old Soviet Union': Socialist shutdown of National Conservatism event featuring Orbán and Farage backfires



Police stormed the National Conservatism conference in Brussels Tuesday and barricaded the doors on the orders of a leftist mayor. The clampdown was demanded and celebrated by Antifa and other extremists who sought to make clear to the world leaders, lawmakers, and intellectuals inside that they were not welcome to openly discuss the conservation of their respective nation-states.

The shutdown backfired greatly, not only confirming attendees' suspicions that leftists are animated by totalitarian energies and that post-national liberals will become increasingly authoritarian as their influence wanes, but causing a significant international stir.

In the face of immense backlash over the socialist clampdown on free speech, Belgium's supreme administrative court and the Belgian prime minister intervened in the conservatives' favor.

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo noted on X, "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."

Meanwhile, foreign leaders — including the British and Italian prime ministers — and multitudes of critics worldwide blasted the attempt to thwart the efforts of patriots to prevent their respective nations from becoming pseudo-states like Belgium.

Times of London columnist Melanie Phillips, who took the stage upon the defiant resumption of the event Wednesday, summarized the scandal thusly: "I feel a bit of history has been made here in the last day or so. What's happened here at this conference is that this process of silencing us has been dramatized in such a spectacular fashion that even the Belgian prime minister has denounced it along with [Prime Minister] Rishi Sunak in Britain, various German politicians, and a chorus of condemnation condemnation across the board and across continents."

"Talk about an own-goal," continued Phillips. "At a stroke, ideological enemies have shown that it is in fact the left that is intolerant and oppressive and a threat to democracy and a dictatorial risk to freedom and national cosnervativism is now the resistance."

"At a stroke, our ideological enemies have shown that it is, in fact, the Left that is intolerant and oppressive and a threat to democracy and a dictatorial risk to freedom. And National Conservatism is now the resistance."\n-@MelanieLatest #NatConBrussels2
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Background

The NatCon conference is a project of the Edmund Burke Foundation and is chaired by Israeli-American philosopher Yoram Hazony.

The project defines "National Conservatism" as "a movement of public figures, journalists, scholars, and students who understand that the past and future of conservatism are inextricably tied to the idea of the nation, to the principle of national independence, and to the revival of the unique national traditions that alone have the power to bind a people together and bring about their flourishing."

Past conferences have taken place across what was once regarded as the free world, in cities such as Orlando, Washington, D.C., London, and Rome. Past guests and speakers included Republican Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.); Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; elements of Blaze Media; and a host of international leaders of various political stripes.

This year, the conference — which counts former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Catholic Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Brexiteer Nigel Farage, and French politician Eric Zemmour among its speakers — had difficulty finding a venue in Brussels hosted by someone with the requisite intestinal fortitude to support free speech.

Politico reported that the conference, this year focused on the theme of "Preserving the Nation-State in Europe," initially secured the Concert Noble, but the host venue pulled out just days ahead of the conference.

Frank Füredi, the executive director of MCC Brussels, the think tank helping organize the event, said, "What has happened in these last few days represents nothing less than a crisis for free speech and political expression for all of Europe."

According to the Brussels Times, communists and other radicals pressured the venue to axe the event to preclude people from discussing and hearing about the fallout of mass migration, climate alarmism, LGBT imperialism, and the erosion of the nation-state.

Another venue caved to leftist pressure, canceling the conference's booking just 20 hours before the event was set to begin, prompting organizers to accuse Brussels' socialist mayor, Philippe Close, of trying to cancel the event for ideological reasons.

Neighboring municipalities also made clear that the conference would not be welcome.

The NatCon conference ultimately found a venue in the Claridge events hall reportedly run by a Tunisian man "who believes in free speech and who did not surrender to the tremendous political pressure to cancel a conservative conference."

Extra to receiving a standing ovation Wednesday, the host was personally thanked by Orbán.

Farage similarly lauded the Tunisian for standing up to the "bullyboys."

The socialist reflex

While the conference overcame the initial cancellation efforts, it still had to deal with the local authorities.

Emir Kir, the socialist mayor of the Brussels suburb Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, announced Tuesday morning that he had "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."

Kir previously indicated he would "immediately take measures to ban" the event.

Police dutifully stormed the event and sealed the entrances, ensuring attendees could not enter.

Here is the police presence outside not letting anybody in and if we leave not letting anybody back in! Insane!
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Police enter venue of Nat Con conference in Brussels to serve a request to close down event. Farage on stage
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Politico indicated that police informed organizers the event was being shut down hours before Nigel Farage's keynote speech.

"It's really something out of a tin-pot dictatorship" Füredi told Politico. "They're trying to use a technical reason to make a political point. They told the owner that if it doesn't get shut down they're gonna cut the electricity."

Farage noted that the socialist mayor's efforts to shut down conservative speech and appease the leftist mob were "like the old Soviet union. No alternative view allowed."

A second wave of officers came by at 12:45 p.m. to hand Anthony Gilland, the event's local organizer, the official shutdown order.

"One of the reasons that we've been given, it's not the only reason, is that there will be a counterprotest this afternoon around about 5 p.m. and the idea is that the police are not able to protect free speech at this event," said Gilland.

An apparent English translation of the shutdown order claims the the event "is likely to cause a serious disturbance of the public peace due to its provocative and discriminatory nature" and that some of the attendees "are reputed to be traditionalists, homophobes, and disrespectful of human rights and minorities; we can also cite an author of controversial works on political Islam."

Hazony announced the event would be "gradually" wound down Tuesday.

NatCon organiser Yoram Hazony announcing the conference would be closed gradually... Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman allowed to speak
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The backlash and conservative triumph

Orbán said in a statement, "The Belgian police decided to shut down the @NatConTalk conference in #Brussels, just two hours after it started. 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!"

The Guardian reported that Farage told those gathered outside the venue, "I've experienced cancel culture personally here … but what has happened in there on the stage with global media, we can see that legally held opinions from people who are going to win national elections is not longer acceptable here in Brussels, the home of globalism."

"This is the complete old communist style where if you don't agree with me, you've got to be banned, you've got to be shut down," added Farage, who was de-banked last year over his political views.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the shutdown, saying, "What is happening in Brussels leaves us in disbelief and dismay. The mayor of one of the Belgian capital's municipalities has banned a conference, which is scheduled to be attended by heads of government, national and European parliamentarians."

"Following the order, police physically prevented guests and speakers from entering the conference," continued Meloni. "I immediately asked Prime Minister Alexander De Croo of Belgium to follow up on what was happening, and I thank him for his timely and clear stance against the hateful oppression of freedom of expression taking place in Brussels."

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, "Speaking more broadly to the principle of such events, he is very clear that canceling events or preventing attendance and no-platforming speakers is damaging to free speech and to democracy as a result."

British parliamentarian and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman tweeted, "It's laughable that the Brussels thought police were sent out to shut down a conference of democratically elected politicians representing the views of millions of people. They clearly didn't want to hear about how we can secure our borders & protect our citizens."

Proponents of the conference challenged the mayoral order with the help of the Christian advocacy group ADF International. Belgium's supreme administrative court said in an emergency session Tuesday that the conference could resume.

ADF International executive director Paul Coleman said in a statement, "While common sense and justice have prevailed, what happened yesterday is a dark mark on European democracy. No official should have the power to shut down free and peaceful assembly merely because he disagrees with what is being said."

Farage posted a video Wednesday morning wherein he gleefully noted he was on his way to the conference.

"It's still happening!" said Farage, who elsewhere penned an editorial suggesting the scandalous shutdown proved Brexit was a good call for Britons. "The local mayor has had his comeuppance. It's going to be a full house, a load of fun. It's a victory for free speech."

Nigel Farage | Return of the Nation State | NatCon Brussels 2youtu.be

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British home secretary enrages UN by telling Americans that 'misguided dogma of multiculturalism' has 'failed'



British Home Secretary Suella Braverman issued a blistering speech in Washington Tuesday, denouncing the "failed" and "outdated" immigration policies that have compromised the stability, security, and sovereignty of Western nations.

The conservative politician drew a parallel between the crises at the U.S. southern border and in the Mediterranean, stressing in her American Enterprise Institute keynote address that "uncontrolled immigration, inadequate integration, and a misguided dogma of multiculturalism have proven a toxic combination" for the West.

The British government indicated that in the year ending June 2023, 52,530 illegal aliens stole into the U.K. — four nations with a collective population of roughly 67 million souls. About 85% of these illegal migrants arrived by boat. The U.K. also received 74,751 asylum claims.

Under President Joe Biden, the United States — a nation with a population of over 335 million — saw over 232,000 illegal aliens steal into the nation just last month.

The Independent reported that Braverman, born to migrants from Mauritius and Kenya, recognizes the benefits of legal immigration. However, she emphasized Tuesday that such benefits rely upon the integration of migrants into the culture of their newfound homelands — a feat she prides her parents on having achieved "wholeheartedly."

"Multiculturalism makes no demands of the incomer to integrate," said Braverman. "It has failed because it allowed people to come to our society and live parallel lives in it. They could be in the society but not of the society."

For instance, the U.K. has observed the emergence of a parallel legal system in its midst, taking the form of Sharia councils.

The European Conservative noted in April that estimates put the number of Sharia councils in England and Wales at around 80, with more on the way. Braverman's predecessor noted that these councils have subjected various British women to discriminatory decisions that wouldn't otherwise fly under the legitimate law of the land.

"And, in extreme cases," continued Braverman, these balkanized migrant populations "could pursue lives aimed at undermining the stability and threatening the security of society."

Braverman referenced Leicester, England, in her speech as a prime example of how multiculturalism contra monocultural multiracialism has proven ruinous.

The English city has been a hotbed for tribal violence, particularly between Hindus and Muslims.

Just as with the Eritrean-Ethiopian violence that Western nations have unwittingly imported, the New York Times highlighted last year that Indian civil strife has found asylum in Leicester along with waves of warring migrants.

According to Braverman, the influx of migrants to the U.K. and the European continent "has been too much, too quick, with too little thought given to integration and the impact on social cohesion."

"If cultural change is too rapid and too big, then what was already there is diluted," continued Braverman. "Eventually it will disappear."

France is among the European nations to have recently paid a price for its failure to integrate new residents. In the wake of a police-involved shooting of a motorist of Algerian descent, riots swept the nation, leaving thousand of buildings torched, thousands of businesses looted, historical sites razed, and memorials desecrated.

Italy too has reaped the whirlwind, just last week seeing its island of Lampedusa, which has a native population of 6,000 residents, inundated with well over 8,500 illegal aliens, many of whom were military-age single men who had set sail from Libya.

Extra to stressing that illegal immigration and a failure to integrate pose an "existential challenge" to the U.S. and U.K. alike, Braverman questioned whether the United Nation's 1951 Refugee Convention was "fit for our modern age," noting that laws once intended to protect people from persecution have been transmogrified to protect people from bias. She suggested that "we will not be able to sustain an asylum system if, in effect, simply being gay or a woman or fearful of discrimination in your country of origin is sufficient to qualify for protection."

Braverman's speech and her suggestion that she will look into reforming the European Convention on Human Rights and the U.N. Refugee Convention with her peers at home and in the U.S. — reforms she indicated others have failed to pursue for fear of being called "racist or illiberal" — have driven leftists and the U.N. up the wall.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, whose organization relies upon British pounds to stay afloat, rebuked the home secretary's remarks, stating, "The refugee convention remains as relevant today as when it was adopted. Where individuals are at risk of persecution on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, it is crucial that they are able to seek safety and protection."

"An appropriate response to the increase in arrivals and to the U.K.’s current asylum backlog would include strengthening and expediting decision-making procedures," added the UNHCR. "The need is not for reform, or more restrictive interpretation, but for stronger and more consistent application of the Convention and its underlying principle of responsibility-sharing"

LGBT activist and London assembly member Andrew Boff, whose city has a foreign-born population of 37% and a non-British population of 22%, said that Braverman should stop engaging in "dog whistle" politics, adding that "talking about the victims of persecution as if they are the problem is incredibly unhelpful and really paints us as an uncaring party. I'm deeply unhappy with it."

Despite receiving overwhelming criticism from various bureaucrats and leftist politicians, Braverman has so far held her ground.

Listen to Braverman's remarks in full:

Keynote Address by UK Home Secretary Suella Bravermanyoutu.be

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