Cardinal Müller told author Rod Dreher that the attempt to shut down the conference was ‘like Nazi Germany.’

Belgium’s highest court ruled late last night that a conference upholding conservative values in the public square could go ahead in the country’s capital after a Brussels district mayor had ordered police to shut it down yesterday. Emir Kir issued the order to halt the National Conservatism conference that was scheduled to take place April 16-17 and which featured among its speakers the Vatican’s former doctrinal chief, Cardinal Gerhard Müller. Police surrounded the venue on Tuesday, denying access to speakers and guests.

The communists couldn’t ban us and neither could the Brussels bureaucrats. The second day of the @NatConTalk conference is underway. pic.twitter.com/4oGYaPdQRg

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) April 17, 2024

The conference, organized by the Edmund Burke Foundation, a public affairs institute, aims to promote conservatism as “inextricably tied” to the idea of nation, national independence, and the revival of national traditions. The event has been held in various capitals including Rome, London, and Washington since its founding in 2019.

Kir said he took the decision because the conference’s vision “is not only ethically conservative (e.g. hostility to the legislation of abortion, same-sex unions etc.) but also focused on the defense of ‘national sovereignty,’ which implies among other things, a ‘Eurosceptic attitude.’” His order also stated that some of the speakers “are reputed to be traditionalists” and that the conference must be banned “to avoid foreseeable attacks on public order and peace.” Prior to Kir’s attempted shutdown, political pressure had already forced the organizers to cancel two other venues shortly before the conference had begun, after which they found a third hotel venue, called Claridge, located in Kir’s district.

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