Brussels police order closure of right-wing National Conservatism Conference attended by Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman | EUROtoday

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Police in Brussels have stormed a right-wing convention attended by Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman after orders for the occasion to be shut down.

Local authorities ordered the controversial National Conservatism (NatCon) Conference to be closed to “guarantee public safety”.

Ms Braverman, the previous house secretary, and Mr Farage, the previous Ukip chief, had been among the many political names marketed to talk on the occasion on Tuesday alongside right-wing Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban.

Officers arrived after the occasion started on the Claridge venue in central Brussels to inform organisers the occasion could be shut down. According to a report on social media, police arrived whereas Mr Farage was addressing the occasion, giving attendees quarter-hour to go away the venue. However, officers didn’t seem to drive the occasion to close down and speeches continued.

Police have now stated they won’t let anybody else into the venue and other people can go away and never re-enter.

The convention has already needed to transfer location twice after mayors throughout the Brussels area refused the assembly’s chosen venues.

Emir Kir, mayor of the world the place the convention was held, stated: “I issued an order from the mayor to ban the ‘National Conservatism Conference’ event to guarantee public safety.

“In Etterbeek, Brussels City and Saint-Josse, the far-right is not welcome.”

Conference organisers stated they had been launching a authorized problem to Mr Kir’s order, including: “There is no public disturbance and no grounds to shut down a gathering of politicians, intellectuals, journalists, students, civic leaders, and concerned citizens.

“The police entered the venue on our invitation, saw the proceedings and the press corps, and quickly withdrew. Is it possible they witnessed how peaceful the event is?”

Before the occasion started, Mr Farage criticised the Belgian capital’s management for reportedly pressuring venues to cancel the convention.

Mr Farage stated Brussels “appears to have got even worse” since Brexit and that cancel tradition is “alive and well”.

“On my way back to Brussels, it’s my first public visit there for four years since the day I left on the eve of us leaving the EU,” he stated in a video posted on X.

“Would you believe that Brussels appears to have got even worse in the four years since I’ve been there.

“We’ve now had not one but two venues cancel us holding this conference. Apparently the socialist mayor of Brussels doesn’t think this meeting should take place. Antifa and other organisations threatening to protest.

“I mean talk about cancel culture, these are political parties that are going to come top of the poll in at least nine European countries when we get the results through on June 10 of this year. So on my way back to the ghastly Brussels, cancel culture alive and well.”

The convention is hosted by the Edmund Burke Foundation suppose tank, which declares its intention to be “strengthening the principles of national conservatism in Western countries”.

Ms Braverman and Mr Orban had been unveiled because the occasion’s keynote audio system final month.

Mr Orban is broadly seen as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally within the European Union and has been accused of launching a crackdown on homosexual rights and press freedom.

The Liberal Democrats criticised Ms Braverman over her plans to “share a platform with a far-right authoritarian”.

Lib Dem overseas affairs spokesman Layla Moran stated on the time of the announcement: “No politician should be sharing the stage with an ally of Vladimir Putin as he carries out his barbaric invasion of Ukraine.”

She added that it was “staggering” {that a} former house secretary “would think that this is the right thing to do”. “From cries of a conspiratorial deep state to sharing a platform with a far-right authoritarian, the Conservative Party has gone completely off the rails,” she added.

Ms Braverman used a speech on the final NatCon convention, in London final May, to set out her hardline imaginative and prescient for British Conservatism and railed in opposition to “experts and elites” amid claims of contemporary authorities splits over immigration.

The then house secretary launched right into a tirade in opposition to multiculturalism, “political correctness”, transgender individuals and identification politics.

She additionally stated the federal government “needs to get overall immigration numbers down” and stated some immigrants wanted to “learn English and understand British social norms”.