Prof. Frank Füredi, director of MCC Burssels, wrote a detailed opinion piece on the experiences of the past days.Continue reading
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have written to the President of the EP after the mayors of three Brussels districts exerted pressure to block the National Conservative Conference (NatCon) last week.
The Fidesz Group in the EP announced that on the initiative of Kinga Gál, the President of the Fidesz delegation to the European Parliament, the MEPs who spoke at last week’s conference in Brussels wrote a letter to Roberta Metsola, the President of the EP. The letter was signed by Hungarian MEPs Gál and Enikő Győri, Polish MEPs Ryszard Legutko and Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, Dutch MEP Rob Roos, Spanish MEP Hermann Tertsch, and Belgian MEP Tom Vandendendriessche.
President of the EP, Roberta Metsola. Photo: Facebook
Dear Madam President,
The participants of the National Conservatism Conference (NatCon), organized by the Edmund Burke Foundation in Brussels on April 16-17, 2024, including the MEPs who spoke at the event, were subjected to an unprecedented insult in the democratic world.
The original venue, the Concert Noble, was canceled a day before the conference under pressure from Mayor Philippe Close, and the new venue, the Sofitel Brussels Europe, backed out of the event over alleged public safety concerns. The organizers were eventually able to hold the conference at a third venue, The Claridge Convention Centre, which was, however, raided by police shortly after the event began.
MEP Kinga Gál (R) with Director of MCC Brussels, Prof. Frank Füredi (M) and Czech politician Jan Zahradil (L). Photo: Facebook / Gál Kinga
As it turned out, the mayor of the Saint-Josse-ten-Noode district, Emir Kir, had made the decision to ban NatCon on absurd and biased political grounds reminiscent of totalitarian dictatorships. The decision to ban the event accuses its participants of national conservatism, defense of national sovereignty, Euroscepticism, and respect for tradition, and accuses them of homophobia, violation of human and minority rights, and Islamophobia.
This procedure, in addition to being unworthy of a Member State of the European Union, seriously violated the speakers’ freedom of thought and conscience, their rights to freedom of expression and information, and their freedom of assembly, which are guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
Madam President,
It cannot go unanswered that the fundamental rights of politicians and public figures are being obstructed by such brutal means in Brussels, in the very city that claims to be a model of European democracy, tolerance, and diversity. We respectfully call on the President to publicly condemn this at the forthcoming plenary session of the European Parliament.”
Via Kinga Gál, MEP of Fidesz; Featured Image: Hungary Today