‘Simply monstrous,’ says Nigel Farage as Belgian mayor cancels his event
Nigel Farage has called a Brussels mayor ‘a ghastly little person’ for shutting down a conservative conference in the Belgian capital he was speaking at.
Nigel Farage has called a Brussels mayor “a ghastly little person” for shutting down a Conference of Conservatives in the Belgian capital on the pretext of it being dangerous to allow “far right” views.
The mayor of Saint-Josse Ten Noode, Emir Kir, tweeted in French: “I used an order to prohibit the National Conservative Conference event to guarantee public safety. In Etterbeek, Brussels City and Saint-Josse, the far-right is not welcome.”
An event that might have passed largely unnoticed has now become a fierce debate about freedom of speech.
As well as Mr Farage, a former member of the European Parliament who sparked Brexit, the two-day conference was to hear from former British home secretary Suella Braverman, the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, former Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the French far-right candidate Eric Zemmour.
The shutdown has evoked much criticism because activists wearing Hamas slogans and anti-Semitic symbols have conducted recent demonstrations in the town.
Mr Kir also has a controversial political history, having been expelled from the left-wing Parti Socialists in 2020 for twice meeting the Turkish neo-facist group Grey Wolves.
Mr Farage was on stage delivering his speech and taking questions about his friend, Donald Trump, when police arrived with a court order to close down the event, which was being held at a local wedding venue.
Part of the order detailed fears that left-wing activists could mount a demonstration. Other sections of the order claimed the speakers could display racist and homophobic views.
“If anything has convinced me that leaving the European Union ideology was the right thing to do, it is the events of today, this is a peaceful political event,” Mr Farage, a Brexit proponent, said.
He said the opposition to the National Conservatism Conference was about closing down alternative options to the European Union.
“When we talk about the European Union, no alternative view is allowed.’’
Ms Braverman told Sky News: “It’s a real shame that the thought police instructed by the mayor of Brussels saw fit to try and undermine and denigrate free speech and free debate.’’ She claimed the same mayor had hosted the mayor of Tehran in Brussels last year.
Organisers had had to change venue twice in the past two days after the Sofitel and Concert Noble came under political pressure, Mr Farage claimed.
The mayor’s actions come two months before a national election in Belgium and polls have shown the right-wing party Vlaams Belang has increased its original base of support from the Flanders area and could score highly across the nation.
“What has happened over the course of the last 48 hours is simply monstrous,’’ Mr Farage said, adding “the owner of this venue, a Tunisian man, is being threatened by police’’.
“We are up against the new form of communism,’’ Mr Farage said.
Two hours into the event, the conference organiser Yoram Hazony took to the stage to announce the conference would be closed gradually, with police allowing no further people inside the venue.
The matter was being contested in court late on Tuesday with conference organisers saying there had been no public disturbance and no grounds to shut down a gathering of politicians, intellectuals, journalists, students, civic leaders and concerned citizens.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “The Prime Minister is a strong supporter and advocator for free speech and he believes that should be fundamental to any democracy.
“Speaking more broadly to the principle of such events, he is very clear that cancelling events or preventing attendance and no-platforming speakers is damaging to free speech and to democracy as a result.
“He is very clear that free debate and the exchange of views is vital, even where you disagree.”
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