Meloni says attack on right's freedom of speech in Brussels

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 17 - Premier Giorgia Meloni said in a letter to the National Conservatism conference in Brussels Wednesday that was halted by a local mayor on public safety grounds Tuesday that this had been an attack on the rightwing parties' freedom of speech.
    The event at the Claridge venue was halted by police on the orders of the head of a Brussels municipality after two other local mayors had refused to host an event featuring leaders such as Hungary's Viktor Orban as well as the Meloni-led European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) caucus which Orban is set to join.
    "It never happened before, a conference with prime ministers, MEPs and MPs was banned and then closed with an intervention by the police," said Meloni in a letter read out by ECR Whip Nicola Procaccini of the Italian PM's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, in which she apologised for not being with her fellow conservative leaders in person because her plane for a Brussels European Council meeting was late.
    "This episode can be attributed to an extremist mayor, but the risk of this virus spreading is real.
    "Thank you to all of you for being there, and long live freedom".
    Participants include Spain's Vox, Poland's Law and Jusrice (PiS) party, and French firebrand Eric Zemmour's Reconquete, all ECR members.
    Also at the two-day event were ex UKIP leader and Reform UK honorary chair Nigel Farage and former hardline Tory home secretary Suella Braverman, who were talking when the police stopped proceedings.
    The ECR was founded by ex Conservative leader and PM David Cameron, now the foreign secretary.
    The Tories left the group after Brexit. (ANSA).