The ban on Tuesday of a conference of European conservatives by a Brussels mayor reflects the failing state of democracy in French-speaking Belgium, says Belgian honorary senator, Alain Destexhe. Among the guests are well-known personalities such as Éric Zemmour, Viktor Orban, Nigel Farage, Suella Braverman, but also numerous researchers including the French Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, author of Le Frérisme et ses networks.
In Belgium, a host of militant associations, declaring themselves anti-fascist, some subsidized and close to left-wing parties, are constantly mobilized to prevent the formation of a European movement without direct links with Belgium. The ban was without taking into account the sanitary cordon which is rife in French-speaking Belgium. For the first time, in the middle of the European campaign, it was applied to a European group without direct links with Belgium, he says. The Council of State has since rebutted the mayor's ban.