“It’s literally a siege” — Shocking escalation of growing totalitarianism across the Western world

Apr 16, 2024

No sooner had the totalitarian drama in Brazil started to calm down than a fresh new one erupted in Belgium.

As of 5 p.m. local time today, the local Brussels police were not letting people into an event of conservatives in Brussels. They were letting people exit, but they were not letting them come back in.

The National Conservatism Conference was full of famous conservative political leaders in Europe, including UK Brexit leader Nigel Farage, former UK government Home Secretary Suella Braverman, and French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, who police blocked from entering.

“We are confined in this room in a so-called Western liberal democracy and so it’s completely insane,” independent reporter Matt Goodwin told Public. Suella Braverman, the UK’s former Home Secretary, denounced the “thought police”  Said Farage, “This is like the old Soviet Union. No alternative view allowed.”

“It’s literally a siege,” said the Chairman of the National Conservatism conference, Yoram Hazony. “We have here representatives of the leading nationalist, conservative, and right of center parties. And not just politicians but also academics, journalists. These are prominent people. These are not inflammatory people.”

The police’s actions appear to directly violate “Article 12: Freedom of assembly and of association” in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is the EU’s Bill of Rights. It reads, “1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others.”

Hazony described how the police attempted to shut down the event before realizing they were undermanned. “There are 300-400 people here, including 120 journalists and 7-8 camera crews,” said Hazony on a Spaces on X that I hosted at 5:30 pm Belgium time. “It was proceeding normally when, around 2 pm, three police walked into the front door.

“At the moment they walked in, the 7-8 camera crews who had been focusing on [former UK politician and Brexit leader] Nigel Farage, turned to film them,” said Hazony. “Then, they saw they were being filmed and ran outside and called for reinforcements. They knew that the three of them were not able to shut down this event.”

Hazony said the police appeared to be using “public disturbance” as cause for the crackdown.

“We received a document from the municipality,” said Hazony. “One concern was ‘public disturbance.’ But the only disturbance is the police trying to present our conference.”

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