BRUSSELS police have moved to break up a conference of Europe’s hard-right elite – with speaker Nigel Farage blasting the authorities as “simply monstrous”.

Officers descended on the National Conservatism conference in the Belgian capital on Tuesday morning, reportedly citing concerns over possible disorder.

Police arrived two hours into the event, according to Politico, with an officer telling the site: “The authorities decided to shut the event due to possibility of public disorder.”

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Emir Kir, the mayor of the Saint-Josse-ten-Noode area where the Claridge venue is situated, told the site he would “immediately take measures to ban” the event from taking place.

He added: “In Etterbeek, in Brussels City and in Saint-Josse, the far-right is not welcome.”

Farage had began speaking after police showed up, telling the audience: “I knew I wouldn’t be welcome back in Brussels.”

He called the authorities’ response “simply monstrous”, adding: “I understand the police are very, very keen to close this down. If they’re going to close it down they can do it with me on stage.”

Footage on social media showed police arriving at the venue but it appears they did not shut down the event and speeches continued, the PA news agency reported. 

The Claridge event space was the conference’s third venue, after its first choice, the Concert Noble, turned them away under pressure from the socialist mayor of Brussels Philippe Close, and the liberal mayor of Etterbeek put pressure on the luxury Sofitel hotel to cancel it at the second attempt, Politico reported.

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Frank Füredi, one of the organizers from right-wing think tank MCC, which is co-sponsoring the event, told the news site: “It’s really something out of a tinpot dictatorship.

“They’re trying to use a technical reason to make a political point. They told the owner that if it doesn’t get shut down they’re gonna cut the electricity.”

Police are said to have handed over an official order to Anthony Gilland, chief of staff at MCC and one of the event’s organisers demanding the event be called off because of a planned counterprotest.

Conference organisers said they were launching a legal challenge to the mayor’s order, adding: “There is no public disturbance and no grounds to shut down a gathering of politicians, intellectuals, journalists, students, civic leaders, and concerned citizens.

“The police entered the venue on our invitation, saw the proceedings and the press corps, and quickly withdrew. Is it possible they witnessed how peaceful the event is?”

The conference had been due to hear from two Conservative MPs, former home secretary Suella Braverman and prominent backbencher Miriam Cates, later on Tuesday, before hosting a speech by the controversial Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban on Wednesday.

Rishi Sunak had faced pressure to block Braverman’s attendance at the conference, with shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth urging the Prime Minister to stop the former home secretary “giving oxygen to these divisive and dangerous individuals”.

Under Boris Johnson’s government in 2020, Conservative backbencher Daniel Kawczynski was reprimanded for attending a National Conservatism conference in Rome, with a Tory spokesman condemning the views of some other speakers, including Orban.

Both Braverman and Cates addressed the National Conservatism conference in London last year, which was disrupted by protesters.

A UK Government source told GB News they were concerned about the scenes in Brussels, saying: "It’s unclear exactly what’s happened here, but the scenes will worry anyone who believes in free speech. Free societies should be confident enough to allow free debate.”