When I was first scheduled to speak at this year’s National Conservatism conference (NatCon) in Brussels, I expected it to be a routine speaking engagement. After all, it is a mainstream conservative gathering that has hosted an event in Brussels before, as well as similar conferences in London, Washington DC, Rome, and Miami. Speakers typically include leading political figures from mainstream parties, civil society leaders, authors, political philosophers, historians, and clergy.
As I soon discovered, there was nothing routine about this event. Not least because I was turning up to the conference’s third venue after the first and second venues cancelled their bookings at short notice. Despite facing significant pressure and even direct threats against him, the owner of the third venue heroically refused to bow down. And that’s when the real drama began.
Around Tuesday lunchtime, police besieged the venue and tried to shut down the event on the orders of the municipal mayor of Brussels.
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