What brings Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman, accompanied by Viktor Orbán, back to Brussels? Notorious far-right figures are descending on the Belgian capital on 16-17 April for "The National Conservatism Conference: Preserving the Nation-State in Europe" – a European version of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the US. The event will bring together politicians, journalists, academics, religious figures, members of the European nobility and shady think tankers –all affiliated with the populist far-right –  at the Concert Noble venue in Brussels to hear inflammatory speeches on topics such as migration, the EU, climate change and LGBTQ+ rights. With important national and European elections on the horizon, protests against the conference – widely seen as a fundraiser for the far-right – are growing. First held in 2019, the annual event has taken place in major cities around the world. Previous attendees have included Georgia Meloni and Marion Maréchal Le Pen. While this year's keynote speakers are Eric Zemmour, Farage, Braverman and Orbán, the conference will also feature speeches by politicians from Belgium's Vlaams Belang, Spain's Vox, Poland's Law & Justice and France's National Rally – standard bearers of Europe's populist far-right. The National Conservative movement is, simply put, an expression of the contemporary far-right, much like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, but it disguises itself as traditional conservatism as a way of appealing to the mainstream. The movement is finding a new life on social media, aided by inflammatory posts against immigration and liberal values (often aided by bots) which are designed to shock and reach as many eyeballs as possible.

continue reading

There was Truss at CPAC in Florida, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Steve Bannon and now Braverman to attend The National Conservatism Conference in Brussels, a who's who of little Hitlers in Europe, and we're supposed to believe the Tories are not far-right?

Then we have the BBC apologising to party leader Richard Tice for calling Reform UK far-right while Farage, their honorary president, will hobnob with Europe's mini Mussolinis.

What the fuck are they doing in Belgium? They left the EU, but obviously will be not happy until the EU is destroyed.