Shutting Down the Political Right A case study in why voters distrust Europe’s liberal elites.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/shutting-down-the-political-right-0ab4ead6?mod=opinion_lead_pos4
The movement known as national conservatism is a disparate group that includes many thoughtful thinkers and more than a few cranks. But nothing they stand for justified the decision this week by Belgian authorities to send in the cops to break up a conference in Brussels. It’s another example that today’s censors are more on the left than right.
The Edmund Burke Foundation, a U.S. public-affairs institute, sought to hold its latest National Conservatism Conference in Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the European Union. The agenda included “the perils of ever-closer union” regarding political integration in the EU, “faith and family in crisis,” and EU immigration policy (which is as dysfunctional as America’s if not more so). Guests included British champion of Brexit Nigel Farage, French conservative Eric Zemmour, and of course Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Cue outrage from the political left. The conference’s organizers said they had to scramble after their first two venues canceled on short notice amid political pressure. When a third venue agreed to host the meeting, the mayor of the Saint-Josse-ten-Noode district in Brussels, Emir Kir, issued a four-page decree banning the event. Mr. Kir was expelled by the Socialist party in 2020 for holding meetings with Turkish nationalist politicians.
The decree claims the conference would bring together people from the “conservative and religious right, and from the European far right”; that it would have a “provocative and discriminatory nature”; and that among the speakers would be “traditionalists, homophobes, and those who don’t respect human rights.” Yes, those ever-anarchic traditionalists. The decree said police couldn’t guarantee the safety of the event from the Antifa-style protesters the mayor was certain would show up outside.
Call it a heckler’s veto by official decree. Belgium’s highest court saw through this, with an emergency writ that allowed the second day of the conference to proceed. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo described the ban as “unacceptable.” But not before Mr. Kir mobilized the power of the state to send police swarming the conference site on the first day to prevent anyone else from entering and to keep anyone who left from returning.
The court’s emergency decision didn’t touch on the substance of the case, so don’t assume free speech is safe in Belgium. Speech codes targeting conservatives are popping up in Europe, with a recent Scottish law trying to ban contrary opinions on transgender issues being a high-profile example. You don’t have to be a national conservative to understand what’s at stake here. A society that won’t protect controversial political speech isn’t free.
As for the politics, voters across the EU head to the polls in June to elect a new European Parliament, and conservative parties are expected to do well. Europeans seem to think a tone-deaf liberal elite doesn’t take seriously their concerns on immigration, culture and national sovereignty. Whatever could have given them that idea?
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