From Brussels to Budapest, the Left and Right Agree – Shut Down Free Speech!

​Sometimes it seems as if the left and the right are in a contest to see which side can be the most illiberal. With each polarity defining the other as a “threat to democracy,” restrictions on political opponents are rationalized away as a necessary act of public hygiene. Recent events in Europe, from Budapest to Brussels, should serve as a warning to Americans who want to use police power to make their opponents shut up.
 
In December, the U.S. State Department warned that a new Sovereign Defense Authority law in Hungary “can be used to intimidate and punish” Hungarians who disagree with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his ruling party. No less an observer than David Pressman, the U.S. ambassador in Budapest, said: “This new state body has unfettered powers to interrogate Hungarians, demand their private documents and utilize the services of Hungary’s intelligence apparatus – all without any judicial oversight or judicial recourse for its targets.”
 
So how are left-leaning critics responding to the rise of the Europe right? By also using intimidation to shut down speech. In Brussels, police in April acted on orders from local authorities by forcibly shutting down a National Conservatism conference. This event, which was to host discussions among European conservative figures, including Prime Minister Orbán and former Brexit champion Nigel Farage, was terminated hours after it began.
 
The cited reasons for the closure included concerns over potential public disorder linked to planned protests. Such a policy, of course, gives protesters pre-emptive veto power over controversial speech, backed by the police.
 
The conference had earlier faced official meddling to prevent the selection of a venue. Initial plans to host the event at the Concert Noble were thwarted due to pressure from the Socialist mayor of Brussels. Subsequently, a booking at the Sofitel hotel in Etterbeek was canceled after local activists alerted that city’s mayor, who pressured the hotel to withdraw its support. Finally, the organizers settled on the Claridge Hotel, only to encounter further challenges including threats to the venue’s owner and logistical disruptions orchestrated by local authorities, culminating in the police blockade that effectively stifled the conference.
 
The good news is public response to the shutdown of the National Conservatism conference was vocal and critical. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo voiced a strong objection, stating that such bans on political meetings were unequivocally unconstitutional. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also responded that canceling events and de-platforming speakers is damaging to democracy.
 
The closure in Brussels is particularly ironic given the city's status as the capital of the European Union, a supposed bastion of liberal democratic values. The forced closure, threats to cut electricity, and the barring of speakers are tactics that betray a fundamental disrespect for democratic norms. What transpired was a scenario more befitting a "tinpot dictatorship," as Frank Füredi, one of the event's organizers, put it.
 
Speech crackdowns seem to be a European disease. This aggressive move to silence a peaceful assembly under the guise of preventing disorder echoes the same illiberal impulses driving Scotland's Hate Crime and Public Order Act. That law broadly criminalizes speech under the expansive banner of “stirring up hatred.”
 
Americans would do well to look to Europe to see what cancellation and criminalization of speech looks like. As the cities and campuses of the United States face what promises to be a hot summer of protest over Gaza, Americans need to keep a relentless focus on protecting speech – even speech one regards as heinous – while preventing tent city invasions, vandalism, and violence that compromises the rights of others.