(Bloomberg) — A far-right political conference organized in Brussels with the support of Hungarian groups backed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán descended into chaos Tuesday when the city government tried to shut it down.
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Speakers including Nigel Farage, a British politician who led the Brexit charge, continued to speak at the National Conservatism Conference meeting despite orders from a local mayor to ban the event, citing public safety concerns. About a dozen police officers formed a cordon outside the conference, blocking people from entering.
Event organizers cycled through planned locations after at least two places canceled plans at the last minute to host the event, where Orban and former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki are due to speak on Wednesday. It is unclear whether the event will go ahead on Wednesday.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo sharply criticized officials in Brussels for trying to shut down the meeting, calling it “unacceptable.”
“Municipal autonomy is a cornerstone of our democracy, but it can never override the Belgian Constitution that has guaranteed freedom of expression and peaceful assembly since 1830,” he said in a post on the social network X. “Banning political gatherings is unconstitutional. Point.”
The dispute threatens to play into the hands of some far-right politicians, who have accused government officials across Europe of trying to silence their voices ahead of June’s European Parliament elections.
“The new communism is alive and well. It is now manifesting itself in the EU,” Farage said in an interview after Tuesday’s events. “No alternative views will be tolerated or permitted.” He added that banning Orban’s speech on Wednesday would provoke a diplomatic incident.
“We must tell the world that they tried to cancel us in Brussels, but freedom will prevail,” Frank Furedi, executive director of MCC Brussels, a think tank backed by Orban’s Eurosceptic Fidesz party, said in a statement.
Emir Kir, the mayor of the Brussels municipality of Sint-Joost, said his order banning the gathering was aimed at ensuring public safety.
“The far right is not welcome in Etterbeek, Brussels City and Sint-Joost,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
Seizing on the dispute, Orban posted on X: “I think they could no longer tolerate freedom of expression.”
–With help from Lyubov Pronina.
(Updates with Farage response in seventh paragraph)
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