Brussels government shuttered the National Conservatism Conference police notified on Tuesday that those inside the conference would be able to leave but never return, and that they would stop entry to the event. However, the behavior was not the outcome of any common disturbances or threats. Left-progressive lawmakers who do not like the opinions being swayed at the conference who feared the growing popularity of patriotic and liberal ideas in European politics took part in the political activity.
Original coverage of the event is posted these and around, with no fear more to come. And see this article by Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the affair.
I am a director of the Edmund Burke Foundation, which is sponsoring the event, and I have been president of its normal “NatCon ” events in the U. S. , U. K. , and Europe for the past five decades.
My coworkers and I have polar opposites on pressing issues like unchecked emigration. the use of racial and gender-based ideas to coerce academic institutions; the transport of government control to foreign bureaucracies; and the deterioration of freedoms of speech, church, and investigation. The main topics on this week’s Brussels event are these.
All of our events are properly planned to include top-tier conservative philosophers, artists, scholars, protesters, and political characters, and to provide a good mix of statements, panel discussions, and disputes ( with a few brave hearts on the Left to keep us sharp ).
Kevin Roberts, leader of the Heritage Foundation, has delivered excellent addresses at previous conferences and received ovations and respect for his support for some NatCon positions but disagrees with some of them. Although I had to skip it myself due to commitments in the U.S., there are several other Heritage friends attending this week’s Brussels meeting. S. ( then to my particular regret! ) ( The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news and commentary shop. )
That an honest getting of political authorities, activists, and thinkers may be bullied by a governor and sequestered by the authorities is, of course, absurd and worthy of serious condemnation. And only a select few conservative and liberal officials have made important remarks.
However, the affair has a deeper significance. It demonstrates how defiant, honest conservatism is gaining a significant following in both Europe and the United States. S. —and that the liberal Left is increasingly inclined to use means that, in its desperate attempt to stop us, were previously unthinkable.
Unfortunately, the progressives ’ effort to anathematize national conservatives as a “far right ” threat to democracy and civil order is being adopted by others who should know better. Some on the average left and right are portraying the Brussels “controversy ” as a case for standing on principle for freedom of speech—even for those with so-called deplorable ideas and values, as if NatCons were Nazis marching through Skokie. Thanks for your support, men, and have a nice free-speech time yourself.
The tragedy is really the most recent illustration of democratic decay and establishment timorousness. At the request of town officers, two upscale Brussels hotels, Concert Noble and a Sofitel hotel, abruptly canceled the NatCon event. Afterwards, the no-nonsense Tunisian owner of the Claridge event house agreed to host us, refused to back down, and treated us to warm hospitality in exchange for the animosity of the town father.
This gentleman is in today’s avant-garde. A richly deserved political reckoning is coming in for the progressive approach of meeting conservative ascent with shallow demagoguery and forceful suppression, rather than forthright argument or reform of their ruinous policies.
