The attempt by the Brussels political elite to ban the National Conservatism Conference was not a unique attack on freedom of speech in Europe.
The Brussels headquarters of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) is suing Emir Kir, the mayor of the Brussels district of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, for attempting to violate the right to freedom of speech due to the banning of one of the organization's April conferences, lawyer Yohann Rimokh announced in Brussels on Wednesday, the At MCC's Free Speech Against Hate Speech event.
The district mayor banned MCC's April 16-17 National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) in an administrative order "to guarantee public safety".
In his message published on X, Emir Kir wrote: In Brussels and in the districts of the Belgian capital called Etterbeek and Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, "the extreme right is not welcome".
The organizers challenged the order with the help of a Vienna-based legal protection organization (ADF), the court dealing with the case scheduled a hearing for ten o'clock in the evening, and after midnight made its decision to annul the mayor's decision, so the conference could continue.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that freedom of speech has been targeted in Brussels or Belgium, said Yohann Rimokh.
According to him, there are shameful cases that affect all people, regardless of political beliefs, who believe in freedom of speech. However, this was the first time that an administrative decree was used to prevent the holding of a conference at which the prime minister of a member state also gave a presentation.
And this was also the first time that Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo published a message on his social media page, in which he called the action of the district mayor unacceptable and unconstitutional.
"For the first time, we have also seen international leaders echo these concerns in their statements, putting a global spotlight on the bad practices that have become the norm in the heart of the European Union, Brussels," said Yohann Rimokh.
Researcher Norman Lewis, a visiting fellow at MCC Brussels, drew attention to the fact that the attempt by the Brussels political elite to ban the National Conservatism Conference was not a unique attack on freedom of speech in Europe: it fits into the pattern of decades-long policies aimed at controlling the political narrative originating in the EU. , when events were canceled for similar reasons.
Anthony Gilland, MCC's Brussels foreign relations officer, said the attempt to ban the conference was an attack on political actors who do not fit into the mainstream of EU discourse.
There is a concerted effort in the EU to give EU elites the power to define acceptable speech and remove anything deemed politically dangerous.
What recently culminated in the attempt to disable NatCon clearly shows that certain forces are trying to stop events they don't like, to silence opinions they don't like, he added.
John O'Brien, Communications Director of MCC Brussels, emphasized that the attempt to ban NatCon highlighted the fact that the elite existing in the Brussels bubble want to determine: what the 448 million people living in the EU countries can say, what they can listen to, or what they can think. In response, the MCC launched a campaign entitled Brussels Freedom of Speech Declaration in order to recognize the fundamental importance of freedom of speech, the communications director informed.
MTI
Cover image: Police prevented the holding of the NatCon conference
Source: Facebook/Balázs Orbán
