We cannot ignore the brutal attempt to silence conservative politicians in Brussels!

On the initiative of Kinga Gál, President of the Fidesz delegation, the MEPs who spoke at the NatCon conservative conference in Brussels have written the following letter to Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament:

Hon. Roberta Metsola

President of the European Parliament

Dear Madam President, 

Participants at the Edmund Burke Foundation’s National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) in Brussels on 16-17 April, including MEPs who spoke at the event, were the subject of an insult unprecedented in the democratic world.

The original venue, the Concert Noble, cancelled the organisation of the event a few days before the conference under pressure from Mayor Philippe Close, and the new venue, the Sofitel Brussels Europe, also pulled out of the event, citing public safety concerns. The organisers were eventually able to hold the conference at a third venue, the Claridge Events Centre, which was raided by police shortly after the event began.

It turned out that the mayor of the district of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Emir Kir, had taken the decision to ban NatCon on absurd and biased political grounds reminiscent of totalitarian dictatorships. The banning decision reproaches its participants for their national conservatism, defence of national sovereignty, Euroscepticism and traditionalism, and accuses them of homophobia, Islamophobia and violation of human and minority rights.

This procedure, in addition to being unworthy of a Member State of the European Union, was a serious violation of the speakers’ freedom of thought and conscience, their right to freedom of expression and information and their freedom of assembly, as guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Madam President,

It cannot go unanswered that in Brussels, the very city that claims to be a model of European democracy, tolerance and diversity, the fundamental rights of politicians and public personalities are being obstructed by such brutal means. We respectfully call on the President to publicly condemn this at the forthcoming plenary session of the European Parliament.

Kind regards,

Kinga Gál

Enikő Győri

Ryszard Legutko 

Rob Roos 

Jacek Saryusz-Wolski 

Hermann Tertsch 

Tom Vandendriessche