The attempted shut down of the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels yesterday was a “massive own goal” for the EU, Nigel Farage has said.
Speaking on GB News, he said: “The prime minister of Belgium has intervened to say what happened yesterday was wrong, as indeed did Rishi Sunak and the prime minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, as well.
“This is a very deeply intolerant place. If you come to Brussels with a different point of view, if you question the whole project of the European Union, they literally try to shut you down, and I think what happened yesterday was a massive own goal.”
Talking to Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, he was asked about concerns about the views of some of the participants, including Hungary’s president Viktor Oban, who is an ally of Vladimir Putin.
He replied: “Viktor Orban is the most successful politician in Europe. He repeatedly gets re-elected at general elections in a multi-party system with over 50% of the vote.
“People may not like his politics but he is a legitimate leader. The idea that a prime minister of a country should not be allowed to come to Brussels and speak on our platform, the very concept is monstrous.”
Farage added: “The whole conference was a coming together of Eurosceptic groups who question the globalist structure that is the European Union.
“We've got European elections coming in just a few weeks’ time and it looks like UKIP-style parties are going to top the poll in nine or ten European countries.
“This was getting ready for the European elections, and I came here, formally as a group leader in the European Parliament, to encourage them all.
“They can now go back to their countries and say, ‘look, see how deeply intolerant the European project is? See how fundamentally anti-democratic it is?’
“I think what yesterday did is going to be a huge boost to those parties in June.”
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