The overturning of the leftist order to shut down the NatCon conference in Brussels and the international cross-party condemnation of the blatant act of cancel culture will serve as a “watershed moment” in the battle for freedom of speech, Brexit leader Nigel Farage has predicted.
As Nigel Farage was on stage at the National Conservatism Conference on Tuesday in Brussels, far-left Turkish heritage municipal mayor Emir Kir ordered police to shut down the event in an attempt to show that the “far-right is not welcome” in the de-facto capital of the European Union. Although some participants, including Members of the European Parliament and former French presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, were blocked by armed police from entering the building, the conference continued.
Ultimately, an “emergency late-night ruling” from a Belgian court ruled that the order to shut down the conference was unconstitutional over breaches of freedom of speech and assembly protections. This came after neo-liberal Prime Minister Alexander De Croo reproached the municipal mayor’s order, saying that: “Banning political meetings is unconstitutional. Full stop”
After the conclusion of the NatCon conference on Wednesday, Nigel Farage said on his GB News programme: “The whole world could see that cancel culture was alive and kicking in Brussels yesterday and this story has gone global… I believe it is a watershed moment, that now it cannot be denied that this sort of thing happens.”
Mr Farage, who has long been a target for cancel culture from being barred from restaurants to having his bank accounts shut down, said that the international condemnations of the act of cancel culture will make it “much more difficult in future to cancel speakers going to universities, to cancel meetings being held by truly legitimate organisations.”
“I’m not saying the whole thing is finished. I’m not saying the war is over. But we have won an important battle and it is, folks, believe me, a turning point and I’m very proud to have been a part of it,” Farage declared.
The censorious actions of Brussels officials, with other mayors reportedly putting pressure on other venues to refuse to host the conference, have drawn condemnation from across the political spectrum, including from populist right-wing figures such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán, who addressed NatCon on Wednesday.
Mr Orbán drew comparisons to the event to his days as an anti-communist activist in Soviet-controlled Hungary in the 1980s, relaying that government apparatchiks putting pressure on venues to refuse to host his Fidesz party meetings was a key strategy of the communist government in the dying days of communism to prevent dissent from spreading.
However, it was not just the populist right who condemned the actions of the socialist municipal mayor, with even those on the European left raising the alarm at the, with former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis telling the UnHerd website: “I’m no political friend of Nigel Farage but I would hate it if anyone like Nigel was prevented from speaking merely because he may say things that may annoy, among other people, myself.
“Unless we return to basic liberal values and stop wanting to be triggered by the arguments of our opponents, we stand no chance of navigating a decent course through the various landmines of authoritarianism.”
Perhaps most surprisingly, top globalist Eurocrat and former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt also blasted the move, describing it as a “ridiculous own goal”.
The censorious act may have significant political ramifications given its proximity to the European Parliament elections in June, in which citizens from throughout the EU will head to the polls. Even before Tuesday, there has been a brewing anti-globalist sentiment rising across the continent, with farmers leading the charge against the green agenda favoured by Brussels elites and anger about the cost of living and energy crises plaguing the economies of Europe. Populist parties are predicted to be the outright winners in at least nine nations during the elections.
Speaking to Breitbart News on Tuesday, French MEP Patricia Chagnon, who was barred by police from entering the NatCon venue said that the “authoritarian” actions seemed to her a “last desperate attempt by those in power to stay there” because they know what is “around the corner… the people taking back control and defending their rights.”
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