BRUSSELS — Police in Brussels moved on Tuesday to shut down an ongoing gathering of Europe’s hard-right elite.
The National Conservatism Conference was set to welcome Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán and U.K. politician Nigel Farage over the next two days, but law enforcement arrived two hours into the event at the Claridge venue, near the European Quarter, to inform organizers that the event would be terminated.
“The authorities decided to shut the event due to possibility of public disorder,” a police officer heard by POLITICO told one of the organizers. The shutters had already come down on the venue where Brexit architect Farage was due to give a keynote speech at 11 a.m.
When he got on stage, as drama continue to unfold outside the venue, Farage lambasted the Brussels’ authorities as “simply monstrous” for attempting to cancel the event.
“I knew I wouldn’t be welcome back in Brussels,” the former MEP chafed.
The Brexit champion wasn’t alone in his stinging critiques for the city’s bureaucracy.
“It’s really something out of a tinpot dictatorship,” Frank Füredi, one of the organizers from right-wing think tank MCC, which is co-sponsoring the event, 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.”
Just over an hour after first arriving, the police returned at roughly 12:45 p.m. to hand over an official order to the event’s local organizer Anthony Gilland, chief of staff at MCC. The police gave him 15 minutes to read and sign the three-page document.
“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,” he said.
By 2 p.m., the stand-off had been ongoing for nearly three hours. Some attendees had left, but most stuck around to listen to the remaining panelists.
While police created a barricade outside the venue, conference-goers took a break to enjoy a slew of appetizers, including carpaccio with asparagus, smoked salmon and guacamole bowls.
According to Füredi, the conference organizers had to contact a new catering service after the original one was stopped from coming to the venue.
The Claridge event space was already the conference’s third venue, after its first space — Concert Noble — turned them away under pressure from the Socialist Mayor of Brussels Philippe Close, and the liberal mayor of Etterbeek put pressure on the luxury Sofitel hotel to cancel it at the second attempt.
Emir Kir, the mayor of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode where the Claridge is situated, earlier told POLITICO by email that he would “immediately take measures to ban” the event.
Farage paid tribute to the Claridge owner, calling him a “brave Tunisian man” who has stood up to the “bullyboys” that want to shut down the conference.
The police told organizers there was a risk of protesters causing civil disorder at the venue later in the afternoon. Gilland told the police that they would challenge the mayor’s decision in court to keep the show on the road.
Guests had started pouring into the venue early Tuesday, lining up for coffee, croissants and seats ahead of the packed conference. The venue was crammed with a sea of blue and black suits, a blend of academics, students, and officials from all over the world.
Organizers boasted about their victory over Brussels’ woke leaders, but the feeling was short-lived. Around 11 a.m., shortly before Farage was scheduled to give his speech, chatter about police presence started spreading through the venue.
Other scheduled attendees at the event included right-wing darlings Suella Braverman, the former U.K. home secretary, and Eric Zemmour, a far-right firebrand who ran to be president of France in 2022.
The NatCon conference is organized by the Edmund Burke Foundation, a right-wing think tank.
“I understand the police are very, very keen to close this down. If they’re going to close it down they can do it with me on stage,” Farage said in closing. The audience cheered and hollered.
This story has been updated.