The Brussels centre of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) is initiating legal proceedings against the mayor of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode in Brussels, Emir Kir, for attempting to violate freedom of speech by trying to ban one of the organization’s April conferences. The news was announced by lawyer Yohann Rimokh on Wednesday in Brussels, during the MCC event titled Free Speech vs Hate Speech: The EU’s censorship agenda.
The district mayor issued an administrative order to prohibit the MCC’s National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) scheduled for 16–17 April, citing ‘ensuring public safety’ as the reason. Emir Kir, in a message posted on social media, stated that ‘right-wing extremism’ is not welcome in Brussels, as well as in the Belgian capital’s districts of Etterbeek and Saint-Josse-ten-Noode.
With the assistance of a Vienna-based legal advocacy group (ADF), the organizers challenged the order. The court handling the case scheduled a hearing for ten o’clock in the evening, and after midnight, it ruled to annul the mayoral decision, allowing the conference to proceed.
‘Unfortunately, this is not the first instance where freedom of speech has come under attack in Brussels or Belgium,’
Yohann Rimokh noted. According to him, there have been shameful incidents that affect everyone who believes in freedom of speech, regardless of their political beliefs. However, this was the first case where an administrative decree was used to prevent a conference where a prime minister of a member state was scheduled to speak. Additionally, it was the first time that Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo publicly condemned the mayor’s action as unacceptable and unconstitutional on his social media platform. ‘We also witnessed international leaders echoing these concerns in their statements, shining a global spotlight on the troubling practice that has become the norm in the heart of the European Union, Brussels,’ Yohann Rimokh pointed out.
Researcher Norman Lewis, a visiting fellow at MCC Brussels, highlighted that the attempt by the Brussels political elite to ban the National Conservatism Conference was not an isolated attack on freedom of speech in Europe. It fits into the pattern of decades-long policies originating from the EU aimed at controlling political narratives, where events have been cancelled for similar reasons.
Chief of Staff responsible for external relations at MCC Brussels Anthony Gilland stated that the attempt to ban the conference was an attack on political actors who do not fit into the mainstream discourse of the EU. Coordinated efforts are underway in the EU to empower the elite to determine acceptable speech, and to remove anything they deem politically dangerous. The recent attempt to thwart NatCon illustrates how certain forces try to shut down events they disagree with and silence opinions they don’t like.
Communications director at MCC Brussels John O’Brien opined that the attempt to ban NatCon highlights the fact that
the elite in the Brussels bubble want to dictate what the 448 million people living in EU countries can say, hear, or think.
In response, MCC has launched a campaign titled ‘Brussels declaration for free speech’ to recognize the fundamental importance of freedom of speech.
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Sources: Hungarian Conservative/MTI/MCC
