The cancellation happened despite having previously accepted to organize the event. The venue later withdrew their offer, claiming that the book launch was too "political", Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) said in a statement sent to MTI on Wednesday.
In his latest much talked about book, Professor Frank Furedi, director of MCC Brussels, explores the cultural crusade against history that increasingly labels the past as "toxic". From the demolition of statues to the erasure of historical terms from dictionaries, the author examines the growing efforts to portray the past in a negative light. Published by the prestigious Polity Press, the book has received numerous accolades from leading intellectuals in Europe and the United States such as Jonathan Haidt, Nigel Biggar, Jonathan Sumption and Robert Tombs. "As a result, it has become a cornerstone of a wide-ranging debate on the legacy of Western civilization's past," the statement reads.
The decision of the Piola Libri bookstore to cancel the event, after having previously agreed to host it, says a lot about the situation of freedom of speech in Brussels,
the statement quotes Frank Furedi, who finds it ironic that just a stone's throw away from the European Commission, a bookstore frequented by EU insiders, declares some books simply too dangerous, while citing a commitment to “inclusivity”. "very close to the European Commission's headquarters, which is frequented by EU leaders, labels some books as dangerous, while claiming a commitment to "inclusion".
This incident reveals the deeply censorious nature of the EU bubble and the hypocrisy that exists and thrives in Brussels and Belgium,
the author adds.
Az MCC Brussels e-mailben értesült a könyvesbolt negatív döntéséről. A bolt képviselője így fogalmazott:
In the email informing MCC Brussels about the bookshop's negative decision the representative writes:
After a careful consideration, we have found out that the political connotation of the initiative is more strongly marked than we initially understood.
This isn't the first time MCC has run up against attempts to restrict free speech in Brussels. Earlier this year, their National Conservatism Conference (NatCon) was blocked by Brussels bureaucrats, but the pressure on the event was eventually successfully countered by a broad media, political and legal campaign, and the event was, in the end, held in Brussels. MCC Brussels is committed to defending free speech and has secured an alternative venue for the book launch, which will be revealed shortly.
