Concert Noble, an event venue in the heart of the European Quarter, has announced that it will no longer host the NatCon conference scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday – POLITICO.
The future of the National Conservatives conference, which was due to take place in Brussels next week and was advertised as a glittering gathering of right-wing political figures from across Europe, has been thrown into doubt after the host cancelled the event.
Among those slated to attend are Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, and French politician Eric Zemmour.
MCC Brussels, a think tank backed by the Hungarian government and partly organiser of the event, said an alternative venue was being sought.
Frank Furedi, executive director of MCC Brussels, denounced the decision by the venue to cancel the event:
What has happened in these last few days represents nothing less than a crisis for free speech and political expression for all of Europe.
Next week’s meeting in Brussels was to have been the ninth event, with another conference due to be held this summer in Washington DC, as NatCon has become a player on the international think tank scene and has a strong transatlantic focus.
It is an absolute tragedy that cancel culture has been welcomed into Brussels in the very heart of the European Union. Everyone, regardless of political affiliation, should be concerned about what is happening here, Furedi added.
Florida Governor Ron De Santis and US Senator Josh Hawley have previously attended the meeting. The conference is hosted by the Edmund Burke Foundation, a Washington-based think tank founded in 2019 to promote conservative ideology.
The subject matter of the Brussels conference is “Preserving the Nation-State in Europe.” Participants will discuss what they see as “challenges” to national sovereignty coming from the European Union, especially in the context of the upcoming European elections this summer.
