Brussels, the heart of the European Union, came under fire for banning the National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) in April 2024, and now the first-instance ruling of a Belgian court argues that the act constituted unlawful censorship and that authorities have an “active obligation” to enure “fundamental rights.”
The ruling stated that the decision by authorities in the Saint-Josse-ten-Noode municipality — one of 19 in the Brussels Capital Region — to ban the NatCon conference, was not legal. The ban, the ruling further clarifies, violated freedom of speech and the right to peaceful assembly.
Budapest’s Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) posted in response to the ruling: “The judgment rejects censorship, dismisses the logic of a heckler’s veto, and sets a clear precedent. In a democracy governed by the rule of law. Ideas cannot be silenced!”
The ruling is particularly significant because it is the third such decision to reach the same conclusion. The Belgian Council of State (Conseil d’État) had previously ruled the ban unlawful twice in 2024, both in an urgent procedure and after a substantive examination. With this decision, both the French- and Dutch-speaking judiciary have taken a unified position, which is extremely rare in Belgium’s divided constitutional system.
The 26-page judgment rejected all procedural objections, which the municipality, according to the court, had raised in part to delay the decision on the merits.
“Authorities must not only refrain from indirectly restricting fundamental rights, but also have an active obligation to ensure them, regardless of the views expressed at a given event,” the court stated, as cited by Mandiner.
According to the decision, the municipality of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode failed to comply with this obligation. Instead of assessing the necessary policing measures, it imposed a general and unjustified ban without demonstrating that it would have been objectively impossible to maintain public order.
The court classified the ban as a civil law violation and placed responsibility for the ban directly on of the mayor of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Emir Kir.
The municipality was ordered to pay symbolic damages of one euro and legal costs.
