Brussels venue ditches far-right conference after public pressure
The far-right National Conservatism conference, due to take place in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday (16-17 April), has been left searching for a new location after the Concert Noble venue decided to pull out — after public pressure.
Edificio, the company managing the Concert Noble ballroom insisted on its respect "for the key European values of democracy" before announcing that the conference would not be held at its premises.
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The event is co-organised by the MCC Brussels think-tank, which has close links to Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party. Orbán himself features as one of the speakers (Photo: European Parliament)
Despite its moderate branding as a conference on "conservatism," most speakers belong to populist or extremist rightwing political parties.
Co-organised by the MCC Brussels think tank, which has close links to Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party, the conference features several figureheads of the European far-right.
The list includes Eric Zemmour, leader of the French Reconquete!, former MEP and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, anti-abortion cardinal Gerhard Müller, and Orbán himself, alongside a host of other politicians linked to the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group and the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, commentators, and academics.
Another recent addition to the speaker list was Hans-Georg Maaßen, the former head of the German domestic security agency, who is currently under investigation for suspected rightwing extremism.
With ticket prices ranging up to €20,000, the conference has been branded a fundraiser for Europe’s far-right, bolstering support ahead of June’s European elections.
The cancellation came after the Coordination Antifasciste de Belgique (CAB) and the Belgian League of Human Rights (LDH) put public pressure upon Edificio.
"These speakers are morbid figures," a CAB activist told the EUobserver, adding that they should not be allowed "to spread their dangerous ideologies and raise funds for their campaign," citing Zemmour’s 2022 conviction for racist hate speech as an example.
The LDH also called on Edificio to cancel the event, stating that "within the limits of the law, freedom of expression applies to everyone, but this principle does not oblige anyone to welcome the far-right into their homes",
’Absolute tragedy’?
However, the conference organisers claimed that freedom of speech was being silenced by "anti-democratic propagators of cancel culture".
Calling it "an absolute tragedy" that the venue cancelled the conference, Frank Furedi, director of MCC Brussels, argued that "all people of goodwill should be prepared to fight for all our rights to free thought and expression."
But the CAB rejected the accusation of impairing freedom of speech as hypocritical, in light of the extreme positions of the speakers on topics like LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, religious freedom and migration.
"This has nothing to do with free speech. These are people calling for hate and discrimination", the CAB activist said, adding that Orbán posed the true threat to such freedoms by cracking down on the free press in Hungary.
Despite the cancellation, the organisers have insisted that the event will still go ahead at an alternative venue, due to be announced on Monday.
For their part, the CAB hailed Edificio’s decision as a victory but called for "continued mobilisation" against the conference in case it found a new location.