Emir Kir, the mayor of the Brussels commune of Saint Josse, had signed a court order demanding the closure of the event with “immediate effect”, on the grounds that speeches by the likes of Mr Farage and Suella Braverman could cause public disorder.
Might it be possible that this no platforming idea might have gone too far? Maybe?
Let them continue to highlight the authoritarianism. This sort of thing must be great for the likes of Viktor Orban in the upcoming elections.
Much like during the Brexit campaign, every time Guy Verhoftwat opened his mouth it must have added a couple of points to the Leave side.
Ok.. That’s a minus 1000 for british journalism..
Took me a bit to get the gist of what actually happened, because this one is used by just about everybody involved to promote their Narrative….
Right wing political congress… check.
Properly right-wing, with an impressive list of bigwigs as speakers. Farage actually being minor on the scale, since he’s never been President or Prime Minister..
Has indeed been forced to relocate two times before it could even start. Due to threats from radical left “elements”.
And venue owners do not like events that may well leave their venues wrecked..
The event ended up in the lap of this particular Black Sheep of belgian politics who also happens to be Major of the town involved.
On short notice.
Without the actual manpower to guarantee the safety of the participants of the congress.
And the “Peaceful Protesters” already on their way and totally-not-organised-and-ready for Peaceful Protest, extreme left variant.
I can see the problem, and can actually sort-of understand why he pulled the emergency brake. You don’t want a battlefield in your town when you’re Mayor and Elections are coming up.
Especially not when you look at who was actually there… And having any one of those speakers actually potentially come to harm because you can’t guarantee their safety…. weeelll……
And the lot that came marching up for Peaceful Protest are not exactly Fluffy Bunnies….
Rock, Hard Place.
That other belgian authorities let happen. One can only guess at their motives, but still…
So he used the only Big Red Button available to him: Public Safety.
Concept good. Execution….. “could have been handled better”.
And oil on the fire, whatever he would have decided….
I….don’t think he had any other option, given how far things had escalated already ( conveniently left out by the Telegraph Journo….).
Someone should set up the Very Far Right Events Company Ltd. No need to organize anything. Just sue the venues when they cancel.
This does remind me of the stabbing of the Greek Orthodox bishop in Sydney.
The stabber was merely quoted as saying that if he didn’t talk about my religion, I wouldn’t have stabbed him. But TPTB were certainly running around terrified when the horrid orthodox began to riot in retaliation, by jumping on police cars etc.
Belgian court struck down the Mayors decision and the conference can go ahead:
https://adfinternational.org/news/free-speech-prevails-for-nat-con
“Has indeed been forced to relocate two times before it could even start. Due to threats from radical left “elements”.
And venue owners do not like events that may well leave their venues wrecked..”
Who’s actually liable here? Venue owners are right, but the issue here is the failure of the authorities to say “while this event is lawful, it should not be disrupted. People using violence or intimidation to disrupt it will be tackled hard and we are prepared to put the boot in to do so”
Leftists have taken Lenin’s aphorism to heart – at previous events, lilly livered authorities have failed to guarantee safety in the face of leftist violence, and guess what, leftists have realised that they can venue owners will then be afraid even to host stuff.
Someone needs to show some backbone.
Fat chance.
It is quite obvious what happened here. The orhanisers did not bribe the police enough.
Schoolboy error. When in Belgyland always carry enough cash for the coppers.
( BTW anyone who knows Belgium will realise that this not really a joke )
This was amply shown in the US this week with palistinian protesters blocking roads. In Chicago and San Francisco, the cops were there to protect the protesters from angry motorists. The protests were allowed to go on for hours.
In Miami and Tampa, the cops simply swept the protesters off the road and arrested them. The roads were cleared in a few minutes.
Quiz for those following along at home:
Which cities will see further “actions”?