April 17, 2024 - 7:00am

Brussels authorities’ move to shut down this week’s NatCon gathering risks backfiring in spectacular fashion.

The conference, which was due to feature ex-Ukip leader Nigel Farage, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and former home secretary Suella Braverman among others, had already been forced to change venues twice following activist pressure. On Tuesday morning, police shut down the event at NatCon’s third venue, Claridge, citing the risk of public disorder. The message seems to be that, if you’re a young person looking for rebellion against the powers-that-be, conservatism is your ticket to outrage.

Belgian authorities argued that the conference could not proceed as police would not be able to “protect free speech” at the event in light of a counter-protest due to take place, according to Tony Gilland, chief of staff at MCC Brussels, one of NatCon’s organisers. Apparently freedom of expression must be curtailed so as to… protect freedom of expression. Sadly, this Orwellian double-speak is now par for the course in these matters.

But it would be wrong to understand these censorious moves as a crackdown on radical, dangerous outsiders — an impression that both Leftist protesters and centrist authorities on one hand, and the national conservatives on the receiving end on the other, seem keen to advance.

Reporting in liberal outlets emphasises how NatCon is a gathering of “Right-wing extremism”. Really, it is something of a paper tiger. The evidence cited for radicalism amounts mainly to nasty words, or because the figures in question defend policies such as restrictions on migration — policies that are already part of European officialdom. After all, they don’t call it “Fortress Europe” for nothing.

So there is an element of shadow-play here. Politicians across the continent purvey double-speak on migration: even liberal parties rhetorically defend strict migration controls, all the while allowing the importation of cheap labourers, exposing their attachment to a low-wage economy. In this light, the censorship of NatCon only communicates the idea that certain policies may be implemented but never spoken about. Liberal cosmopolitanism is a mask that must remain firmly attached, however illiberal the reality.

Moreover, Right-populists have largely been absorbed by the EU, incorporated or co-opted by the establishment. They present no threat to European integration or to Nato, for instance, and instead are coming to occupy the centre of politics. The change to the face of Western politics as this process continues will be cultural and cosmetic, not structural or profound.

What is really at stake is that the censorship machine continues to grow. For example, NatCon’s shutdown follows last week’s cancellation of the Palestine Congress in Berlin — and a whole raft of absurd clampdowns on Palestinian advocacy in Germany. Here too, pro-Palestinian activists can claim the mantle of radical outsiders — special victims of censorship — thus justifying their cause. The cachet associated with being the object of censorship might even be in danger of losing value.

But how many pro-Palestine activists will defend Farage et al.’s right to hold a conference? And will that same right to freedom of expression be extended by conservatives to the former?

What is at issue, irrespective of the political content of one side or the other, is that no one should be empowered to decide what you can and cannot hear. Common cause must be made to defend freedom. Because, from the no-platforming of speakers, to the shutting down of events, to the growing power of the “disinformation complex”, freedom of expression is under serious threat.

As the establishment feels its legitimacy slipping away, day after day, its symptomatic responses grow. Neoliberal Order Breakdown Syndrome is real. The dangerous extremists are, in fact, the centrists.


Alex Hochuli is a writer based in São Paulo. He hosts the Aufhebunga Bunga podcast and is co-author of The End of the End of History: Politics in the 21st Century.

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