A visibly irked Nigel Farage has fumed at Belgian Police for shutting down a conference he was speaking at in Brussels.
According to reports, authorities in the Belgian capital ordered the closure of the right-wing conference that was due to hear from British politicians including Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman.
Emir Kir, the mayor of Brussels district Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, said he had issued an order banning the National Conservatism conference from taking place on Tuesday “to guarantee public safety”.
He added: “In Etterbeek, in Brussels City and in Saint-Josse, the far-right is not welcome.”
The conference had already struggled to find a venue, with two event spaces cancelling the National Conservatives’ booking in the face of public pressure – leading organisers to accuse the Brussels mayor Philippe Close of seeking to “cancel” the event.
According to a report on social media, police arrived while Mr Farage, the honorary president of Reform UK, was addressing the event, giving attendees 15 minutes to leave the venue.
Footage later showed police officers entering the venue.
However, officers did not appear to force the event to shut down and speeches continued.
Conference organisers said they were launching a legal challenge to Mr Kir’s order, adding: “There is no public disturbance and no grounds to shut down a gathering of politicians, intellectuals, journalists, students, civic leaders, and concerned citizens.
“The police entered the venue on our invitation, saw the proceedings and the press corps, and quickly withdrew. Is it possible they witnessed how peaceful the event is?”
The conference had been due to hear from two Conservative MPs, Ms Braverman and Miriam Cates, later on Tuesday, before hosting a speech by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban on Wednesday.
Rishi Sunak had faced pressure to block Ms Braverman’s attendance at the conference, with Labour shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth urging him to stop the former home secretary “giving oxygen to these divisive and dangerous individuals”.
Under Boris Johnson’s government in 2020, Conservative backbencher Daniel Kawczynski was reprimanded for attending a National Conservatism conference in Rome, with a Tory spokesman condemning the views of some other speakers, including Mr Orban.
Both Ms Braverman and Ms Cates addressed the National Conservatism conference in London last year, which was disrupted by protesters.
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