CV NEWS FEED // Paul Coleman, executive director of Alliance Defending Freedom International, this week explained how the National Conservatism Conference successfully fought back against a mayor in Belgium who attempted to shut down the conference with police forces.
On April 16 Emir Kir, the mayor of the Saint-Josse-ten-Noode district in the Brussels-Capital region of Belgium, issued a decree prohibiting the conference from taking place. Police were sent to the venue to prevent speakers and attendees from entry.
On April 18, Coleman wrote an op-ed in online publication The Spectator detailing the events that took place before and after the mayor’s decree was issued, and how the conference ultimately prevailed.
According to an ADF International news release, Kir’s order “states that some of the speakers ‘are reputed to be traditionalists’ and that the conference must be banned ‘to avoid foreseeable attacks on public order and peace’.”
Another one of the reasons for the decree, Kir stated, is “that [NatCon’s] vision is not only ethically conservative (e.g. hostility to the legalization of abortion, same-sex unions, etc.) but also focused on the defense of “national sovereignty”, which implies, amongst other things, a “Eurosceptic” attitude…”
In his op-ed, Coleman called the mayor’s order a “blatant attempt to censor views with which the mayor disagreed.”
Before the conference, Coleman explained that initially he expected this conference to be “routine,” and that the conference has hosted an event in Brussels before.
He explained that it later became clear that “there was nothing routine about this event.” The conference organizers had to find a new venue for the event three times, as the first two locations both canceled at the last minute.
“Despite facing significant pressure and even direct threats against him, the owner of the third venue heroically refused to bow down,” Coleman wrote. “And that’s when the real drama began.”
On April 16, the first day of the conference at about noon, “police besieged the venue and tried to shut down the event on the orders of the municipal mayor of Brussels,” Coleman explained.
The next several hours after the police arrived were “surreal,” Coleman described:
For reasons not entirely clear, the police decided to allow the event to continue, but people could not enter. Those who were already on the inside could leave but not return, and those on the outside stood in the rain trying to make sense of it all.
This led to the bizarre spectacle of Miriam Cates MP being smuggled into the event via a secret side door to deliver her keynote address on the highly controversial topic of ‘Save the Children’.
He added that German Catholic Cardinal Ludwig Müller, one of the speakers scheduled for the event, also had to be “snuck into the venue” through the same door as Cates.
Coleman wrote that what ensued could be described “as an international diplomatic incident.” The mayor’s decree sparked criticism from the prime ministers of Hungary, Italy, and the United Kingdom, and Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who called the decree “unacceptable” and “unconstitutional.”
However, such criticism alone was not able to overturn the decree, and ADF International was asked to help the conference organizers in filing an emergency legal challenge against the mayor.
“Since I was not allowed to join my colleague and Belgian lawyer, Jean-Paul Van de Walle, inside the venue, the legal action was in part coordinated in its early stages through a wall of police,” Coleman wrote.
After much effort, they were able to file several legal challenges. The first two attempts were not successful, Coleman wrote, “and things were not looking good for day two of NatCon.”
“But miraculously, the Conseil d’État, the highest court in Belgium relating to issues of public administration, agreed to hear our third challenge in an emergency session at 10 p.m. on Tuesday night,” he continued. “We gathered at ADF International’s Brussels office late into the evening, made the final preparations for oral arguments, and headed into court in the dead of night.”
The judge ultimately ruled in favor of the conference organizers, and suspended the mayor’s decree. Coleman noted that the judge’s ruling also “[enabled] the conference to go ahead without police interference.”
However, Coleman wrote, “my first meeting after arriving at the venue was a friendly sit-down with police leaders to discuss security arrangements for the day – the very same police that had blocked my entry less than 24 hours earlier.”
“Rarely in my legal career have I witnessed so starkly the importance of the rule of law and a well-functioning judiciary,” he added.
Coleman expressed gratitude to the court for hearing a case and issuing a ruling “in the middle of the night.” He added that it is encouraging that Belgium’s legal system protected freedom of speech and assembly.
However, he criticized the “massive legal effort” necessary to enable the conference to take place, and questioned if the mayor would be held accountable for being “prepared to deploy riot police as his own personal thought police”.
“This whole debacle has significantly tarnished the image of Brussels, which purports to be the political heart of Europe, in a year of elections for the European Parliament and in many countries on the continent,” he concluded:
In these upcoming elections, the people have the final say. Europe’s leaders would do well to demonstrate their regard for the freedom of their citizens, especially now that the world is on notice that fundamental freedoms are not as safe as many may have assumed.
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