NatCon Cancellation Attempt Shows Rising Threat to Free Speech in Europe

News Analysis

The failed attempt to shut down the National Conservatism conference in Brussels, the nerve center of the European Union (EU), made headlines around the world. But it isn’t an isolated incident in Europe, and it’s a worrying sign for Americans even as the First Amendment remains in place—for now.

Emir Kir, the socialist mayor of Brussels district Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, decreed the cancellation of NatCon Brussels 2 on the first of its two days, April 16. That followed cancellations by previous venues in the city as well as what NatCon backers characterized as a campaign of intimidation against the owner of the third venue, Tunisian-born Ben Yaghlane, and his family. The Epoch Times has reached out to Mr. Kir for comment.

Anna Wellisz, an organizer of the event, praised the Yaghlanes’ courage and kindness in an interview with The Epoch Times. She believes the anti-NatCon campaign went deeper than a district mayor in the city that hosts the European Commission, the European Council, and other key EU organs.

“I think it was an eye-opener that you just can’t do certain things in Brussels,” said Ms. Wellisz, the vice president for external affairs of the Edmund Burke Foundation. The Burke Foundation, chaired by Israeli-American writer Yoram Hazony, is the architect of the NatCons.

Mr. Kir’s April 16 decision claimed the Brussels event reflected a vision that is “not only ethically conservative (e.g. hosti[le] to the legalization of abortion, same-sex unions, etc.) but also focused on the defense of ‘national sovereignty’, which implies, among other things, a ‘Eurosceptic’ attitude.”

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The high-profile speakers scheduled for NatCon 2 Brussels included English “Brexit” leader Nigel Farage, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and French politician Éric Zemmour.

“It is not excluded that extremist groups in Belgium or in Europe may associate themselves with this event or seek to undermine the security of participants in this conference,” Mr. Kir’s decision continued, according to a translation from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International reviewed by The Epoch Times. It was ADF International that represented NatCon in the fast-paced legal battle in which they ultimately prevailed.

“Initially, actually, I wanted to attend the NatCon as a regular attendee,” ADF International’s Jean-Paul Van De Walle told The Epoch Times. Mr. Van De Walle, who had assisted NatCon after an earlier venue’s cancellation, was immediately brought to speak with Mr. Yaghlane when he arrived at the event early on April 16. Rumors of the mayor’s coming cancellation order were already swirling.

He said he was inspired by Mr. Yaghlane’s attitude when he met with him. The proprietor was, he said, “quite uncertain” but also “quite brave,” and committed to upholding his contract, even though he didn’t agree with all the NatCons on everything.

“He also said, ‘Jean-Paul, I could shut my doors for this event, and then what? … When we disagree, we must talk to each other,’” Mr. Van De Walle recalled.

‘Make Them Show What They’re Capable of Doing’

After Mr. Kir’s order came down, police showed up to block the entrance. It soon became clear that those who were already inside weren’t about to be expelled—but the authorities didn’t want to let people back inside.

Ms. Wellisz told The Epoch Times that Mr. Van De Walle had a simple but important piece of advice with law enforcement at the door: “Don’t vacate the premises. Make them throw you out… Make them show what they’re capable of doing.”

She recalled leading a group of the police inside for what she’d promised would be “a peaceful conversation.” That set up an indelible image for media covering the event.

“All the cameras turned around,” she said. The police quickly returned to the entrance, away from the camera’s glare.

As the event continued, ADF International frantically pursued cases on two parallel tracks to try to overcome the mayor’s decision—one in civil court and the other in the administrative court.

“From the beginning, the chances were slim,” Mr. Van De Walle said. His team had just hours to develop and present clear arguments capable of meeting very high thresholds for success.

By the evening of the 16th, the civil case had failed. NatCon participants, still in the building for a dinner, weren’t sure if they would be admitted the next day. Then came news from the Council of State of Belgium, the administrative court: Judge Francis Van Nuffel would hold a hearing on the matter that night.

The clock was ticking.

“I then rushed to my office,” Mr. Van De Walle said. He and ADF International’s Paul Coleman put together their best arguments and presented them to the court, while another lawyer represented the mayor. The decision came in the early hours of the morning on April 17: the mayor was wrong. The event could and did reopen later that day.

“I sincerely hope that this will serve as a precedent,” Mr. Van De Walle said.

“I think we had a miracle,” Ms. Wellisz said.

‘All Patriots Are in the Same Boat’

The attempted cancellation in Brussels came a month after another high-profile cancellation elsewhere in Europe—one to the right of the NatCons.

On March 17, police in Aargau, Switzerland, shut down a speech by Austrian politician and “remigration” advocate Martin Sellner of the Identitarian Movement. He was also deported from Switzerland.

Mr. Sellner was also banned from entering Germany. That followed news that he met with members of Alternative für Deutschland and others on the right about a plan for “remigration” of migrants from Germany.

“The similarities with the suppression of my speech in Switzerland were clear,” the politician told The Epoch Times.

“I have already published a video in which I also sharply criticize the liberal conservatives,“ Mr. Sellner added. ”They remained silent for years when the ‘right-wing populists’ and identitarians had their accounts blocked, were denied entry and banned from giving speeches. They hoped that they would be spared. Now it has reached them too!”

“But of course I stand in solidarity with them. [Mr.] Kir’s actions were intolerable,” he continued.

“I sympathize with anyone who was cancelled,” Ms. Wellisz said, when asked about what happened to Mr. Sellner in Aargau. “It always starts with people who are perceived as more on the right.” She said she has reminded leftists that their speech may also be subject to supression in an anti-free speech climate.

Nationalism, she said, is “invariably confused with ethno-imperialism.”

“The thing about having a nation-state is that the people in it get to decide their own fate and their own future. I grew up in an occupied country, in communist Poland,” Ms. Wellisz said.

“It’s hard to say whether there’s a direct link,” Mr. Van De Walle said of the Sellner case and NatCon.

But “more broadly, we can see that public authorities are taking laws which restrict, directly or indirectly, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly,” the lawyer continued.

He argued that hate speech laws are facilitating “a trend of many threats to freedom of expression.”

“We do know that freedom of expression is absolutely essential to democracy,” he said.

The attitudes of the young American college students—those who will be setting the tone in the country in the years to come—are not reassuring to free-speech advocates.

“This river of swill is definitely flowing towards us,” said Ms. Wellisz.