The Belgian Prime Minister and Rishi Sunak criticise shutdown of NATCON conference

Both the Belgian and the British Prime Ministers have condemned the Brussels police shutting down of the National Conservatism Conference (NATCON), an event organised by the Brussels arm of Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), where conservative politicians such as Nigel Farage spoke on Tuesday and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was due to give an address on Wednesday.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak criticised the Belgian authorities, while Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called the decision of the local Belgian mayor unacceptable, the Guardian reports. "It is clear that preventing people from attending events is detrimental to freedom of expression and democracy," a spokesman for Sunak said.

De Croo said municipal autonomy was a foundation of democracy but must never override the Belgian constitution, which has guaranteed freedom of speech and peaceful assembly since 1830. "Banning political assemblies is unconstitutional," he wrote.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose party was represented at the event by several speakers, also expressed her outrage. Throughout Wednesday, several Hungarian government politicians also publicly expressed their indignation. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó was one such politician. He wrote "I'm guessing this then means that from now on, no Brussels smart alec will ever talk about things like freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of the press.....".

NATCON even had a hard time securing a venue, after the first and then the second chosen location backed out of the agreement shortly before the event was due to start. The conference ended up being hosted at the Claridge venue, located in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode in the Brussels capital region. Mayor Emir Kir told Politico in an email before the event began that he would "take immediate action" to ban the conference. The mayor also confirmed on X that he had ordered the ban on NATCON in order to "guarantee public safety".

According to the programme, the event would feature speeches by, among others, former British House Secretary Suella Braverman and former French presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, whose party recently joined the conservative Eurosceptic ECR, which is being eyed by Fidesz. Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Viktor Orbán were also due to speak on Wednesday.