Those afraid of Europe’s conservative revolution have made freedom of speech their number one enemy. This is especially true in the European capital, where the elite and its footsoldiers are desperately but unsuccessfully trying to control the narrative.
Most recently, a mob of violent Antifa-style protesters clashed with Belgian riot police—who used batons and tear gas—following an attempt to scare organizers into shutting down the launch of Jordan Bardella’s new book at the House of Hungary in Brussels on Wednesday, November 13th.
Apparently allowing the leader of the largest political party in France, National Rally (RN) and the third-largest European Parliamentary bloc—the Patriots for Europe (PfE)—to speak, does not sit well with those without the slightest regard for democracy.
According to the French L’Echo, “hundreds” of radical leftist protesters showed up outside the venue about half an hour before the start of the event. They were waving rainbow flags and red-and-black banners, pointing to the Antifa movement’s communist roots, as well as the same “The extreme-right kills” signs that were used when—presumably the same group—tried to shut down Europe’s biggest conservative conference back in April.
A report on the events in Le Soir said that demonstrators tried to break through the police blockade while hurling bottles and firecrackers at the officers, who responded with batons, tear gas, and water cannons.
“In the face of the rise of fascism and far-right throughout the world, Brussels remains anti-fascist,” the protest organizers proclaimed through loudspeakers.
As we noted previously, Bardella’s book, Ce que je cherche (‘What I’m looking for’) has been at the center of a controversy in its author’s native France.
Booksellers and distributors are being accused of colluding to restrict the visibility of and spread of the book, which is halfway between the autobiography and the political program of the French conservative firebrand who rose to the presidency of RN at the age of 27.
However, the attempts to ban the book backfired spectacularly, and it is now the number one bestseller on Amazon in France.
For context, National Rally won the last parliamentary elections by popular vote, and mainstream parties were only able to prevent it from forming a government by making elaborate electoral deals with the progressives and far-left and taking advantage of France’s outdated first-past-the-post system. Nonetheless, the same tactics cannot be used in presidential races, and Bardella’s predecessor, Marine Le Pen will probably become the next (and first female) president of the republic after the 2027 election.
In Brussels, RN is the largest delegation of the national conservative Patriots group, the third largest bloc in the European Parliament after the centrist EPP and the socialist S&D, which is placed under an undemocratic (and sometimes even unlawful) cordon sanitaire by the left.
The Patriots also include the Hungarian ruling party, Fidesz, hence the book launch’s venue. “Classic Brussels welcome” was how Balázs Orbán, the political director of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s office, greeted news of the protest calling the event a “disgrace to the EU capital.”
